MS Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Printed in part by Wordsworth, Glimpses of the Past,.
My dear Elizabeth
I have often meant to write and say how much your Buxton book helped me in the descriptions of the place, though I had to construct it a good deal from my own consciousness- Queen Elizabeth’s looking down the assassin is perfectly true – I should have not have dared to write– if I could have imagined– anything so improbable as poor Babington having that picture taken, and Gifford’s shewing it to the Queen, who recognized Barnwell from it. Never should I have supposed that she walked about so entirely unguarded, but all that is perfectly historical. I never could make out how big the picture was- One person said he was taken into a barber’s shop to see it, but since it was shewn to the Queen I think it must have been a miniature, and I preferred Pauls’ walk to the barber’s shop.1
I think those horrid cancans must have suggested all the classical notions of the infernal regions.
There is a big and useful book by some man at Sheffield about the captivity of the Queen which I luckily got hold of, and which helped me through the rest. I never saw any one keep youthful brightness like my dear old Julia Argles, I am glad you have been seeing her, but I suppose you have to part with Edith.2 I have had Miss Sewell here very anxious about promoting secondary schools for girls. 3 Boys do seem well attended to, but Girls not.
Yours affectionately
C M Yonge