MS Westcountry Studies Library, Exeter/ Yonge 1881/ 51
My dear Miss Smith
Thank you for the end of your story which I like very much. Here and there you may have been a little discursive, and possibly abridgement may find out some bits. About the incongruity of wreaths with the feelings of the last generation I quite agree with you. We /elder ones\ felt it so with my dear old uncle who we knew held it as a frivolity, and yet one could not disappoint young ones who did those things in all love and piety.2 Still I am glad of the custom provided the flowers are real and kept tidy. It soothes at the time, and really does keep up the sense of connection. When the /school\ children go to ‘put a cross on their baby’s grave’ – a baby they may never have seen, I think it must keep up the family sense of oneness- and I can’t despise it as my elders did.
I am afraid I cannot rectify the Dickens but something no doubt will remind one of us before it is printed. Is not your Duke’s title too like Trolloppes Duke of Omnium3 If he must have a title expressed, might not Swallowfield answer the purpose? I was quite surprised to find Sally Armigils’s love, and very thankful that you did not kill the father outright
yours sincerely
C M Yonge