My dear Anne How heavily and drearily I wished you a happy year, and how little we thought of the joy that was coming in this morning. It was so strange a contrast to have the London letters full of comfort and delight at the same time as Alethea’s sad one, I cannot say I for one moment thought that Jane would be other than an example to us all what ever might betide her, ... continue reading

My dear Anne It is a very long time since I have had such a nice long letter from you. I think the great Corfu news has given you a spur. It did take me very much by surprise though certainly if I had been asked to guess which of the Colbornes was going to be married, I should have said Jane, and you know she is at an age when two years of ... continue reading

My dear Anne Thank you for taking all my impertinence so kindly. I hope you will not be very angry with me for being highly delighted with Mary Coleridge’s prospects, and not even pitying Alethea so much as Cordelia Colborne, for you must remember that Mary will live very near home and the sisters may see each other every day of their lives, and for Mary’s youth, she is much older at twenty, than many people ... continue reading

I send you the Lichfield children What the Christian Remembrancer says of the Birthday is that it is too transparently instructive, and I must write out a little bit which exactly expresses what I was always trying to say to you. ‘The Conversation of the well informed man, whose words flow on because his mind impels them is more valuable in hours of relaxation than the set lecture composed to ... continue reading