MS location unknown. Printed in Coleridge, Life 317-8
My dear Florence,
Miss Mackenzie met Frances Peard a few days ago at Tyntesfield, where she must have been staying at the cottage with Mrs. Doyne so I suppose Mrs. Baker will hear of her soon. I have heard nothing of her but one card while she was in Scotland.
Our hearts are indeed very heavy for our Bishop1, for the charm and delight of his manner come before one, and that matchless voice in the Confirmation addresses. The last time I saw him was in my own drawing-room after our last Confirmation on Tuesday in Holy Week. The sense of personal friendship he has left with so many and many must be unequalled for number. And oh, the future! If he did disappoint one sometimes, there were points where one was secure of him. I suppose it will be a translation to this grand See2, and that that will make room for Archdeacon Bickersteth, who is as good a man as can be, but without full strength for work. The Bishop of Oxford has no fault but being a Radical, but I don’t see how he could take this, with nowhere to put his large family.3 I met him at last week at Mr. Wither’s; never was anything so full of heart and spirit as that church opening, and the meeting after it. That corner of Buckinghamshire is a desolate place as to clergy, and Mr. Wither seems to have been a wonderful stay to the Archdeacon, and to be immensely valued and looked up to. It was an odd visit, for I was the only lady in the house, and there was the Bishop for one night, the Warden of New College and two other old Fellows thereof. However, all but one of them I had known for many years.
Let me know your comings and goings. I do hope you will come to Winchester; I want to say come here at any rate, but I don’t at this moment see my way between Miss Mackenzie and Gertrude, who is now at Southsea, and who is to come to me when she returns. I can’t tell exactly when.
Your affectionate
C. M. Yonge