MS Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
My dear Elizabeth
I ought long ago to have written to you though you told me not, I fully meant to have done so, I was so delighted with the book, but we have had a sad time of illness with poor Gertrude She got better for a fortnight, and then came all the old troubles, and now she has another abscess under her knee and I do not think will be up for a long time to come. But I do like your little book greatly, and I think your Lincolnshire people must be very intelligent to have called it out1 Have you seen Miss Bramston’s book, the Carbridges it is very pretty, and puts me in mind of many things. The eldest daughter has come out so like Alice Moberly and the father and mother are so excellently done. I have known people so like them. We are all snow today and I fear it bodes a hard winter. Poor Warden of New College, it seems like a break up, and what a grief to Mr Coxe it must be.2
Your affectionate
C M Yonge