 At the time of his death he was editing the "Quizzical Gazette and Merry Companion".Mitford defended the reputation of Emma, Lady Hamilton when Edward Pelham Brenton, in his "Naval history of Great Britain", accused her of having demanded to be rowed round the "Minerva" to see Admiral Caracciolo hanging.Mitford wrote a letter to the "Morning Post" denying Brenton's version of events; Brenton in turn dismissed Mitford as someone who lodged 'over a coal shed in some obscure street near Leicester Square'.