MS location unknown. Printed in Coleridge, Life 158-9.
My dear Miss Dyson
If developments interest you, you should begin with Charlotte long before Abbey Church, and trace the dawnings, not only of herself, but of some of the Beechcroft young ladies in the Chateau de Melville.1 Let me send you one if you have not seen it, and if ever you begin to teach your herd to low in French, we can furnish a complete stock. The French is probably good enough for beginners, and it is at all events free from any breach of the third commandment, a fault that seemed to belong to all French books for children when I knew anything about them.
I think you are fortunate to have a child left for the holidays; the books you will read ostensibly for her benefit or amusement will be of great use to the mistress. At least, I think I learnt a great deal more about teaching from children’s books than I did from graver treatises and systems. Not that I am without a great respect for Mrs. Trimmer’s old Guardian of Education.
Your dutiful Slave s’Mother – as Charlotte writes the name of her story, Henrietta s’Wish.