MS Huntington Library: Yonge Letters
My dear Madam,
I enclose the Lesser Holidays, in which I have made one alteration namely the omission of the Augustinian order as having been founded by St Augustine. He seems to have framed a rule of some kind, but it was not till the 9th century (according to Mrs Jameson) that the monastic persons not belonging to the rule of St Benedict were classed under this name, and his rule merely seems to have been direction, not a regular monastic order.1
I have been much engaged lately in different ways, expeditions to the Camp &c, but I have enjoyed few things more than a village meeting for the Propagation of the Gospel in Hursley School, where the only speakers were Mr Keble and the Bishops of Cape town and Oxford, the first giving a simple account of his diocese, the second driving home the application to everyone’s heart, his finished eloquence made perfectly simple and easy for his roundfrock audience.
The most striking thing I heard was the story of a widow who had not seen a clergyman for 38 years but had made her Bible and Prayer book her daily study, became a communicant as soon as the opportunity was given her, and began saving instantly for a church. £20 was her contribution from her own earnings.
I have no time, or I should like to tell you more
Yours sincerely
C M Yonge