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Otterbourne,Winchester.
Febry 18th 1861

MS New York Public Library: Berg Collection

My dear Miss Sewell

Many thanks for you kind & pleasant piece of intelligence. I shall certainly try to get a sight of the number of Blackwood, it is rather an antidote to the Morning post which kindly says that no young people read my books, though their Mammas wish them to do so, because they are so unnatural.1

A good journey to you, I hope you will discover the En[or u]ilian provinces, which was one of the first things that came into my head when the Yards told me of your journey.2 I am so glad you are going, and what a curious state of things you are going to witness – it is well worth the journey.

I do not think you have been ever told that your Passing Thoughts was one of the last books Miss Keble enjoyed.

Yours sincerely

C M Yonge

Some people have asked me if you wrote ‘My Life’. You would have made a much less bitter and better balanced book, but this is a very clever one, though it might be wiser.

1The review of Hopes and Fears in the Morning Post (13 December 1860) 2: 'The author of the 'Heir of Redclyffe' has been long and deservedly a popular writer for youth. It is in no disparaging spirit that it is asked, Is not that popularity rather imaginary than real; does it not exist rather among older persons, who read her works, and decide that they must be very pleasing to young people, than among young people whom they have really pleased?'.
2In her Autobiography (London: 1907) E. Sewell wrote (p. 168) that she “spent five months in Italy and Germany”. The visit can be dated as 1861 because she reports that she was in Turin at the time of Cavour’s funeral. Eliza and Adelaide Yard were friends of Sewell's who lived in Otterbourne.

Cite this letter


The Letters of Charlotte Mary Yonge(1823-1901) edited by Charlotte Mitchell, Ellen Jordan and Helen Schinske.

URL to this Letter is: https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/yonge/1816/to-elizabeth-missing-sewell-13

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