MS British Library Add MSS 54920: 117-8
Dear Mr Macmillan
By no means did I mean the graceful little lamp on Golden Deeds – nor the Dove in the Sunday Book – nor the well in Cawnpore. I meant such a high priest and book as are outside Smith’s Biblical dictionary; or some of the whole pictures of men and women one often sees upon books, – spoiling the whole effect of the real illustration within. It was odd that I asked my mother if she thought what I said could be supposed to apply to Golden Deeds and she said – no by no means.1
The Montfort arms are a lion. I will get the description soon but it need not be a formal shield like the arms on a peerage, but a sort of trophy, perhaps a helmet, shield and broken sword /& spear\, which would answer to the memory of old Montfort that pervades the whole. If the design formed a vignette on the title page it might have the motto –
But he the chieftain of them all
His sword hangs rusting on the wall
Beside his broken spear.2
I send the bit of preface, and shall be glad to have the proofs – the long concluding chapter wants to be divided and furnished with mottoes. The to be continued was a mistake that I ought to have corrected.
Yours sincerely
C M Yonge