MS Yale, Beinecke Library, MSS Vault, Hilles Box 21, Folder Yonge
Gray is difficult with all the notes, and so is Anstice, so perhaps they had better come out. I did not mean the poetry to have been numbered as Lessons but to have stood as a sort of embellishment to be learnt or not according to need – or understanding I should rather have omitted the conversation between Arthur and Hubert than the account of the murder of the Princes in the Tower for it is much less real history – but I see ‘O the devil-’ has scandalised somebody though I supposed Dighton did not mean it as an expletive, but to shew how he was driven in spite of better feelings to complete the murder.
It is the first verse describing Henry VI in Southey’s poem that I chiefly care about – if that remain the other parts may stand or not according to space.
If Arthur and Hubert are omitted, might not Lord Selborne’s poem stand? I am sure it is much easier and more historical – or is it too ecclesiastical
yours sincerely
C M Yonge