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To Mary Yonge
Crookham
Aug 17th [1876]

MS Plymouth and West Devon Area Record Office Acc No 308: 17-8-76

My dear Mary

I am with Miss Sturges Bourne till Saturday and then poor Mildred has written of the sad end of their anxieties, a letter direct from Beatrice came after, with more hope in it; so I suppose the poor boy must have sunk in one of those fits of suffocation. It is very sad, and will half kill poor Mrs Morshead, who seems to have been able to do so much less than Beatrice.1 I wonder how things will be managed now, had not much been left to Henry which can hardly go on to poor Leslie. It is very sad indeed; I hope it has not been a great shock to uncle Yonge. I hear of many colds, from chills in this heat. I went to the Palace at Salisbury on my way from Salisbury, and found Mrs Moberly quite ill with a chill, but getting better and going to Sidmouth next week. We had a little thunder here yesterday which has cooled it nicely. Poor Charlotte Dyson is perfectly broken hearted and bewildered about that wretched Dr Gully, whom she had looked on all her life as people used to do on Uncle James, leaning on him for everything, and her aunt is very anxious as to the effect it may have upon her health.2 She would believe nothing against him at all, till his own words left no doubt. I go home on Saturday, hoping to find a tolerably habitable house, but I have been having papering done so I dread the lingerings of carpenters. Charlotte sent me such a delightful series of photos of the children Little James is so like the first face I remember of Duke, and how old and nice Katherine looks.3

I had a happy time at Tyntesfield,- The new Chapel was opened. It holds 80 people and will serve the people in the lodges, & gardens.- wh are very far from Church, but on the 1st Sunday in the month there is to be no Service & all go to the parish Church4

your most affectionate
C M Yonge

1This refers to the family of the late Captain Pentyre Anderson Morshead (d.1869), a cousin and also the younger brother of the Rev. John Anderson Morshead, the widower of Mary Yonge's sister Alethea. He and his wife Charlotte Story had a large family and little money; their son Henry had just died. Apart from Mary (1845/6-1928) and Beatrice (1853/4-1922), who were members of the Gosling Society and are quite often mentioned by CMY, the children were Louisa Evelyn (b.1846/7); Henry Anderson (1848/9-1876); Julia H. (b.1850); Leslie (b. 1851/2). There may have been others. It sounds as if Leslie was retarded.
2Charlotte Dyson was a niece of CMY’s friend Marianne Dyson (d.1878). Dr James Manby Gully (1808-1883) was ruined by his involvement in the sensational Bravo murder scandal of 1876, although the case never came to trial. He was alleged to have had an affair with Mrs Bravo. Dr James Yonge (1793-1870), a Plymouth physician, was an elder brother of CMY’s father.
3Mary Yonge's sister-in-law had sent CMY photographs of her children.
4The Vicar of Wraxall was not in sympathy with the Tractarianism of the Gibbs family of Tyntesfield, and had discouraged their building a chapel in the house.

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/2561/to-mary-yonge-48

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