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To Arthur John Butler
Elderfield, Otterbourne, Winchester.
June 14th [1869]

MS Mrs Caroline Fairclough/172

My dear Arthur
Here is the chapter of polyglote, – Whether the Grimmsnomoscope2 could be added thereto, or you would like it, is another question, the primary one being whether the presumptuous Polly has made any flagrant mistakes. She is very much obliged to you and hopes she is not very troublesome.

I hope you found Tim convalescent under the care of his devoted nurse.

I had an amusing dinner party that evening, my neighbours being Lord Houghton and M. Michel who wrote Les Ecossais en France, and who is translating Tennyson.3 The conceit with which he talked was exceedingly comical!

Have you seen the Royal Academy and have you any views on that little picture ‘Troubles in the Church’ which I heard a very clerical looking gentleman telling his womankind was the most touching picture in the Exhibition I detest the Sea Eagles, I think no one ought to do animals in distress.4

Give my love to Lizzie who I hope agrees with me

yours very sincerely
C M Yonge

1Black-edged paper, endorsed ‘1868?’.
2This and subsequent letters to Arthur Butler refer to a series in MP by CMY called ‘Polyglott Parsing’, a discussion between several cousins about differences between Greek, Latin, German, French, Italian and Spanish, compared with reference to various translations of the New Testament, which began in July 1869 and of which 8 chapters appeared, increasingly infrequently, the last in August 1870. There are several references to Grimm’s Law in ‘Polyglott Parsing’, for example in Chapter 4, ‘Phonetic Changes’ (Oct 1869).
3Francisque Michel's translations of Tennyson included Viviane (1868) and Genièvre (1868).
4The 1869 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition included John Bagnold Burgess's 'The Troubles in the Church', a scene of a Roman Catholic priest seated with two youths, and Edwin Landseer, 'Swannery invaded by Sea Eagles'.
The two pictures are illustrated respectively at
www.icollector.com/James-Bagnold-Burgess-1830-1897-British-THE-TROUBLES-IN-THE-CHURCH-Oil-on-canvas-titled-t_i83806
and at www.artraart.com/ufiles/landseer_swannery_thumb.jpg.
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/2320/to-arthur-john-butler-2

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