The first instalment of Barnacle is come

Yours affectionately C M Yonge

My dear Frances, Uncle Yonge did not go today. I am sorry to say he has quite got a cold. Helen is very well and bright – Here is a curiosity by way of a German announcement of a betrothal

Your affect Sister C M Yonge

My dear Gertrude

Thank you for your letter, which I found here when I arrived yesterday, by way of Salisbury and Basingstoke. I meant all those flowers of which there was but one specimen for you, Helen may wait to collect for herself

Your most affectionate

C M Yonge

My dear Miss Smith, I have been a long time in answering you and thanking you for your story, but I wanted to finish reading it that I might tell you at once all I thought about it. And now I have 1st to enclose you a cheque for the amount due to you for ‘Who will come & do likewise,’ the praises of which I hear on every side; and next to congratulate you on ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith,

It is a pleasure to have such a letter so answered, after feeling quite uncomfortable to have sent it off. Now I think I must copy off what a very able friend of mine says of the reading of Aggesden, apropos to the Saturday ‘I think that they (the SR) admire Aggesden & in fact it seems to me as little to design a moral as a plot.I should say there was ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith,

It is as pretty and as touching as possible, and we felt it very much, both the waiting, and the old dog coming home to us, in a very way you cannot know. But the very feelings it excited (though we are strangers to all who sailed in that expedition) made us doubt whether the facts be not too recent for treatment in anything like fiction. The numbers were too few for ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Baker Here is your New Zealand paper. I am very sorry I have not been able to use it in the Monthly Packet, but I get more and more in arrears of MS, and am shocked at the way thinks [sic] lie by

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Miss Smith,

I should be very sorry to let the tardiness of the Monthly Packet stand in the way of your Two Beauties so I hope you will offer them elsewhere, and find them successful. There is such a quiet prettiness about them that I am sure they ought to do. And I always have a sense of guiltiness is keeping a thing so long by me, so that I shall be quite relieved ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith,

I am delighted to hear that the rest of the Websters is en route. I find that I never get a book parcel given out on a Monday morning, so I am not at all uneasy at not having received it at the same time as the letter, though I feel rather baulked of my afternoon’s pleasure. My mother and I have most thoroughly enjoyed these first seven chapters, which she thinks ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith,

Thanks for the continuation, some of which we like very much, but I have a good deal to say about it, which is all the easier to do, as you tell me you were thinking of making some alterations in the re writing. First - to begin with what struck us in its order. Grandpapa’s account of his own youth is a little dull and I do not think his history of ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith,

I have been so much taken up that I could not answer your letter sooner, and thank you for the way you have taken it. I am amused at the ordeal you are undergoing. I never met with anything like it, except once, when going with a cousin to luncheon with a connection of hers, she was addressed with ‘Anne, why could you have lent us Abbeychurch. Those games! And that mother!’ ... continue reading

Miss Yonge returns the books she has had of late, and would be glad to have the undermentioned sent to her

Richardson’s Clarissa Ottilie Wildemuth Heimath der Frau

Bucknill Psychology of Shakespeare

Aytoun Ballads of Scotland

Wilson Memoirs of Edinburgh

Mme D’Arblay Life

The Poor Artist

Wilmott’s Journal of Summer time in Country

My dear Miss Smith

I am glad I know you are at home that I may send you not lost but found. I have, as you desired me, taken great liberties with the correction. I think that what I have chiefly to observe is that you have here and there made it obscure by elliptical writing, and that you must beware of now which comes very often over, and I used, by my home critic, to ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Moor,

I am afraid Otterbourne will be unrepresented at Ampfield on the 21st, as Mamma and I are going on the 17th to London for a few days, chiefly to meet the Colbornes on their return from Ireland. I did not write before because our plans were not fully fixed. We shall not be long gone, but it is a pity we just miss your celebration.

yours sincerely

CMYonge

My dear Miss Butler

I am ashamed not to have answered you sooner, but alas it is too late for May or June either so long beforehand does the Packet make itself up. If you had put me in mind of it in February, I could have provided, now I fear we must wait till cuckoo time next year, and pray let me have the papers so early in the spring as to be able to ... continue reading

My dear Miss Bourne,

In the first place you will be glad to hear that it was a very nice quiet Sunday & Monday at the Nest. Mrs Dyson cheered by the return of “her son,” and both glad of finding that his family really consider it a boon that they should stay and take care of him while their house is building at Crookham. I hope that Mr Keble’s suggestion will take effect, and the ... continue reading

My dear Maggie I wish you many happy returns of the day, and I wish I was sending you a Daisy Chain with it, but I did not write a letter in time to get it from London, so I am afraid you must wait for it till the next day, but it will be something to look forward to then, and I will write your name in it, if you like on Friday evening

your affectionate ... continue reading

My dear Miss Bourne,

Taking out your letter to answer I see that you return to Pickhurst on Monday, so I must direct there. I wish I had written on Saturday. Is it that Mrs Laidlaw that you have lost - there was something in her countenance and manner that I liked very much, and how are the little children disposed of? We shall be very glad if you can give us a day after your ... continue reading

My dear Sir, I have authorized M. Tauchnitz to republish “The Little Duke,” and Mr Sydney Williams tells me that he is about to apply to you for a cast of the frontispiece - I am afraid however that the lithographs can be no longer renewed, and I must reply to him that only the vignette of the little page is still to be had. I believe Mrs Blackburn had the stones broken up after the ... continue reading

Dear Miss Erskine,

Many thanks for so kindly enquiring to satisfy the Salisbury correspondent. I will wait till this day week to answer him; in case you should have more particulars for me, I wonder whether he wants to make any use of the story, which should I am sure be widely known, I have no longer the address of Miss Blanch Shelley who sent it to me, and with whom it was a tradition from ... continue reading

I wish to consult you on a question of publishing. Rather more than a year ago, I consented at the request of Messrs Saunders and Otley to let my tale Hopes and Fears appear in their periodical the Constitutional Press, reserving to myself the copy right, and intimating to them my intention of putting the tale when completed into your hands for publication. I have just heard that the Magazine ... continue reading

My dear Sir,

I am obliged for your letter received this morning, and will decide on bringing out Hopes and Fears as soon as possible. I will send the chapters from the Constitutional Press to be reprinted as soon as I have looked over them. I think that the first edition should certainly be in two volumes uniform with the others, but after the experience of Dynevor Terrace, I am not inclined to make the number ... continue reading

My dear Sir John,

I must thank you for the great pleasure you have given me by the tidings of this morning. It is the point to which we have so long worked forward that it seems as if a goal were attained though that goal be only the starting point for a severer race

It will be very remarkable if your Son’s Consecration and that of Archdeacon Mackenzie both the foremost truly Missionary Bishops should take ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith,

Many thanks for your scrupulous honesty. The Websters are safe come, and I will write about them as soon as I can, but perhaps there may be a little delay - as I am going out for the whole day today, and we have a friend staying with us, so I may not have time to read or write this week.

I am very glad to see them however - and look forward ... continue reading

My dear Sir,

Let the 5000 copies be put in hand, as you think it more advisable- Perhaps it was a mistake of mine to take fright, but after the first lessening of popularity, there is always a fear that the next attempt may fall still shorter - and one of my earlier books would not have left the 290 in hand.

I suppose the printing will hardly be finished long before October, if it were I ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith

I did not write about the last part of the Websters as you kindly said you would take silence for an acknowledgement, until I had finished them, as I did last night, having been hindered by many interruptions.

We have been much interested in them, and think great part very good [sic] - Grace and Harold, and the early part of George and Grace especially, but somehow the parts do not perfectly ... continue reading

My dear Friends,

Forgive us for not having remembered to write to you yesterday. Our dear Sister departed like a babe from its mother’s arms with hardly a shudder, seemingly in the midst of a sweet sleep which had lasted a great many hours. God be thanked for her, and may He pour His rich blessings on you and all who love her.

It was at 9.30 yesterday morning; my wife was poorly, but ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith

Thank you, I think this is very satisfactory, and that all the part about old Mr Webster is quite in your best style - and the contrast between the brothers excellent. Mr Webster certainly has his deserts, and one is comforted by his tardy appreciation of George. I am glad Harry’s Confirmation did go off, though by the by, you have not made the corresponding alteration in the account of his death[.] ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Pascoe,

Just a few lines in haste to say that the two specimens arrived quite safe and in excellent order this morning - and that I greatly thank you and your friend for them. I wish I knew of a precedent of dried flowers travelling per post, but I don’t see how they can be charged as letters. Country posts are always more punctilious than the general post office, from the Jack in ... continue reading

My dear Miss Warren,

Many thanks for your three letters and their enclosures. I am very glad the Society has taken it up, for not only will it now be cheaper and better got up, but it is a relief from responsibility - Miss Goodrich is personally known to Mr Evans, and has written a good many little books and tracts for the SPCK -'The cross bearer' - Faith Ashwin, the Chamois Hunters &c- Fanny Wilbraham ... continue reading

My dear Miss Roberts

I am quite ashamed to think how long it is since we have had any communication with you and now I am writing not quite on my own account, but to mention a plan in which I think you would be able and willing to assist. There is an idea of setting on foot a series of county histories and descriptions fit for popular use and such as would teach an intelligent ... continue reading

My dear Miss Butler

I cannot tell you much about poor Mr Parker. I fancy he has not been in good health for some time he went abroad for the winter about 4 years ago, and was abroad again all August & September this year, only coming home just at the beginning of October, when I had one or two notes from him, but when my book came out, 5 weeks ago, his man [[person:178]Mr ... continue reading

Miss Yonge is much obliged to Mr Bourn for sending her several reviews and critical notices of Hopes & Fears.

She would be glad to know how the sale of the work has been proceeding.

Miss Yonge would be much obliged if Mr Bourn would inform her whether Mr Parker is pretty well, and also to express to him her sincere regrets and condolence

My dear Miss Smith, Many thanks for your kind answer, I think these ladies’ biographies will be very nice work to do together, and I believe that to look into real life minutely is the best school for one’s own mind or for fiction. If I write nothing but fiction for some time, I begin to get stupid, and to feel rather as if it had been a long meal of sweets - then history is ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith

Many thanks for the arrival of this morning and for your kind undertaking of the biographies. You will find a good deal more of Mrs Grant’s childhood in her Life of an American Lady, which may be got from Hookham’s library if from no where else. I wish I had the book or I would gladly lend it to you - it is a very interesting and curious picture, but in such ... continue reading

My dear Alice,

I trow you are not expecting me to-night, and a great pity it is, but it will be mitigated if Dr. Moberly will only be so kind as to lend us the lecture to read at home, in which case the Institution shall honestly have the price of our tickets. If you will tell the cart to call we will send in Froude, vol v., and ‘Cornwallis.’ I am afraid you are not ... continue reading