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Elderfield, Otterbourne, Winchester,
May 7, 1874.

MS location unknown. Printed in Coleridge, Life, p. 261

My dear Marianne-
You will like to see poor Aunt Jane’s (Mrs. Harris) letter about dear George, who has done more in his thirty-seven years than most people in twice the time.1 There must be a most fearful blank at St. Luke’s. Only think of his having led to the building of three churches, with most energetic constant services. I hope those two little children will grow up worthy of him. What does Miss Poole say of M. Guizot? We hear by side winds that what has really broken him down was the finding that his son had allowed the Emperor to pay his debts; he tried to return the money, but the executors could not take it, and now he is said to be in a lethargic state.2 I thought the last note I had from Mme. de Witt was a very unhappy one; she said ‘il a trop souffert,’ and hoped he would be better when she got him into the country. No time for more–

Your most affectionate
C. M. YONGE.

1The Rev. George Collyer Harris (1833-4 May 1874), Vicar of St. Luke's Torquay, was the step-son of Jane (Yonge) Harris (b. 1796), first cousin of CMY's father. CMY later published a memoir of him prefixed to a volume of his sermons.
2The implication seems to be that Miss Poole, perhaps Harriet Poole, has visited the Guizots. Perhaps she was working as a governess in Paris. Guizot's daughter Pauline had died in February, and the family were also distressed by the estrangement from his son Guillaume, who had borrowed 50,000 francs from Napoleon III to pay his gambling debts. Guizot raised the money to pay this debt by selling books and a picture before his death on 12 September 1874. See Lettres a sa fille Henriette, 49.
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/2499/to-mary-anne-dyson-23

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