I went along for an eye-test today, and I was pleased to find that the optician looking at my yes was Will; he was the person i saw last time I visited, a very interesting man and I think I may even have written a post about him.
As I was reading through the different letters on the sight-chart we got chatting about other things, and when eventually he sorted out a new prescription for me and got to read the sentence on the page which is in different sizes to make sure that the new glasses will be all right, he remarked on how boring the sentence was I had to read.
When he had his own practice, he wrote out his own sentence for his customers, which he recited for me: “Now we have reached the trees, the beautiful trees! Never so beautiful as to-day”. I remarked what an enchanting sentence it was and asked whether he had written it himself. No he hadn’t; it was written by Mary Russell Mitford, a woman I had never heard of – however, I have now ordered her book so I will be able to read more of her work!
Mary, a writer, dramatist and poet, was born in 1787 and died after a carriage accident in 1855; although she was born in Hampshire she lived most of her life in Berkshire. Her mother was a wealthy heiress, but unfortunately, her father when a widower, spent most of the fortune. Mary came into money through winning a lottery, but her father also managed to dispose of that too. However Mary was devoted to him and lived with him in much reduced circumstances until his death. Mary’s most famous work is ‘Our Village’, which is a series of sketches and observations about village life, based on the village where she lived, Three Mile Cross, in Berkshire.
It seems that a visit to my optician always results in more than a new pair of glasses!
If you want to know more about Mary Russell Mitford and her father, there is an excellent article here:
https://unearthingourvillage.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/gambling-greyhounds-and-the-irish-lottery/
Lois Elsden 