MS Girton College, Cambridge Yonge I 2
My dear William
I have to thank you for some game which gives me an opportunity of writing to you. I have thought much of your concern for Lord Carnarvon’s illness, which must have been great; I felt no little interest in it myself, as he is too good a man to be spared. I was the more alarmed from recollecting how few of his family have lived to be old : now however I trust that he is doing well. What is your son Arthur doing? I heard a report that he was abandoning the law, & taking to tuition work..
I have just been just been reading Miss Yonge’s ‘Daisy Chain’, I am not sure whether for the 2d or the 3d time. I wonder where it is ranked in her own estimation. I place it very high amongst her works, & consider it a model specimen of her peculiar powers. No one else could have written anything like it. The variety of the characters, the nice discrimination of their shades; the force with which they are drawn, the whole process of their development, strike me as admirable; & in spite of one or two little mistakes (such as making the boys catch crayfish in what must have been a tributary of the Severn, or the Wye, where they do not exist) & make me place it very high, not only amongst her works, but in the general region of fiction. Like Walter Scott’s works & my own Aunt’s, I am never weary of reading it.
We have had a large family party for some weeks. All our Sons have been more or less here except Charles, whose residence will begin when Parliament meets: but all are now breaking up. 2 Mary is this morning crossing from Devon for another four month’s residence at Mentone. She is not ill, but Dr Quain urged it as a measure of precaution.
With our affectionate regards to all your party I am very affly yours
J E Austen Leigh