MS University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign: Letter 5.
My dear Mrs Blackburn,
Herewith is a ‘Heartsease’ which I don’t expect you to like much except one character in it. I wonder if I judge rightly which of them you will tolerate, not that I shall tell you beforehand.
The time for the Little Duke’s second edition is come, so would you be so kind as to give directions to have another 2000 plates struck off. 1 It is to be a cheaper affair this time and allowing less margin to the illustrations so as to make it answer to sell at 3/6.
What a delightful expedition2 yours must have been, but are you really going to settle out of the reach of civilised roads and ports? Your letters about your occupations often put me in mind of those busy days which are the charm of ‘Letters from the Mountains’, it is so new a world to us south country folk. Those puss caterpillars are creatures I never saw, though I know their funny picture very well, and the equally droll description in Episodes of Insect Life. My especial tame pets were a pair of tame magpies, most comical fellows, especially the first come, who was a most inveterate thief, and very spiteful to every living thing except my brother and one of the maids, on whose arm he would sit and drink tea. I fancy the raven is the cleverest of all that race, though I never know one intimately.
Are you acquainted with any tame jackdaws, they with their grey heads, have something particularly quaint and delightful about them. Your wanderings, I suppose, checked your Bible Animals. I hope soon to hear more of them.
My brother has been safe out of the battle, but I am thankful to miss the glory for the sake of losing the fearful suspense. Even as it is my mother is obliged to walk for her sleep. And as I have little time
Yours sincerely
C M Yonge