mere babes of 3 years old

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mary Thank you so much for your long letter and history of all your doings. I am sure if usefulness makes a happy life this ought to be one, and you must have much of kindness and of the sense of a living Church round you to fill you with energy. I do not know whether you have ever felt a sort of sense of the absence of the whole salt of life in ... continue reading

My dear Miss [name deliberately obscured] I hope I am not tormenting you but on account of other engagements I am anxious to know whether you could come this week or next. The week that begins with the 7th and has Ash Wednesday in it, I am going to spend at Mr Wilson’s but the one after that I shall be at home again if that suited you better than within the next fortnight

yours sincerely C M ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan I enclose a receipt with many thanks, and rejoicings that the books still continue to prosper. I should be finishing another Worthy today if I had not five young cousins spending the day with me, but at any rate old Curius Dentatus will come before the end of the week, I chose him as the representative of the old hardy uneducated peasant king that the first Romans were. Then comes Scipio for the ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Gatty This fairy tale strikes me as one of the very prettiest I have seen, but it is too long for the Packet and besides ought to be illustrated. So I send it to you, hoping you will have room for it. I am a little disturbed by Venus shining all night but I suppose Fairy land could be no where else It is a most quaint and dainty fancy that does those ... continue reading

My dear Marianne- Here I am in the heat of the weather, with a copse before my eyes where the "grey blossoms twinkle" more like “a bright veering cloud" than I ever saw anything do before, but they are the silver buttons on the withies. Maria had a talk with Mr. Siddon, who expressed the most unqualified delighted approval of the book, but in general I think people regret that it is more the history of ... continue reading

Dear Madam, I was shocked indeed to see Mrs Barnard’s death in the paper and always hoped it was a false report. There was something very touching in the subject of the poem that had appeared that month. It seems to me that it might answer better to the family to publish a collection of her poems than to put them forth very slowly and dispersedly as a magazine must necessarily make them appear – as ... continue reading

Dear Mr Furnivall, Thank you for the English Text. I do not think I can have had the hymns to the Virgin. The last I had bears the date 1866, and is a collection of poems on love, religion and politics, beginning with 'Twelve words &c-' What a wonderful store you have there!

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

Our Otterbourn is in Domesday, but I don’t know how spelt[.] Ottery St Mary always appears in early times ... continue reading

My dear Christabel You and Mary Arnold are very decidedly the best this time, so I don’t send any others.

You will have to reform the scheme of travelling as Mignonette and Sparrow Hawk both resign in much haste

yr affect Mother Goose

Dear Mr Macmillan, I believe the Little Duke has been translated into French, I am sure I have given leave for it, but I do not always hear whether a translation comes to anything

The Cameos would certainly be the better for an Index, I do not think a genealogical table is wanted

I find I still have one of your books, besides Julius Caesar. I will return them together.

The gilt edged copy is very pretty - many ... continue reading

My dear Miss Wilcox, I hope your mother is improving in spite of the cold winds and that you are beginning to think of turning your face to the South, now that Easter is so near. It will be a great pleasure to see you, and I hope you will soon be able to mention a day.

Do tell me if you know the answer to Mr Dodgson’s Acrostic in Phantasmagoria I am sure that the second ... continue reading

My dear Miss Cole I well remember the day you spent here five years ago, and all I have heard of you from the Colborne family.

I am afraid though that it is not of much use for your friend to send me a fairy tale of any length, as I have rather an overflow on my hands of the lighter department and I cannot put in anything of that sort of many pages or of long ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge When the Nov M.P. came I at once referred the quotation ‘No longer mourn for me’ to ‘the divine William’. But I forgot to send it & by this time I dare say you have been referred scores of times to that loveliest of sonnets. If by any incredible chance the matter has escaped notice, put—‘Opening lines of one of Shakespeare’s most beautiful sonnets.’ I hear you have a tale from Mrs. ... continue reading

Cackle Mother Goose having gone out on her broomstick she has had to delay the answers. They are not many in number this time, for Chelsea China’s popularity and Windermere’s Wars of the Roses are decidedly the superior articles. Cricket is the next to ask the questions.

Mignonette and Sparrow Hawk retire

Dear Mr Macmillan, Many thanks, it is very agreeable to get anything out of America. I have a story of the time of Henry V and James I of Scotland - about half out in the Monthly Packet, and all written. I was thinking of proposing it to you for Christmas when it will be finished in the Monthly Packet. Might not some arrangement be made about it with Scribner. I could either send them the ... continue reading

Dear Madam, I am much obliged by your kind answer and will write again in a short time. Another application that I had made about ten days before and had begun to think was unnoticed, has at length answered me, and I must know first whether the girl is eligible to the school that has been mentioned to me.

When this is decided I will write again With many thanks Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mr Macmillan I think I should enjoy editing a Globe edition of children’s books, and am much obliged to you for the proposal. I suppose the question is how many really good ones have exhausted their copy right.

Perhaps Philip Quarl could begin the series, it is really Defoe’s but I doubt if anyone has read it.

I send 9 chapters of the Lion. One object is to make people think of that St Katharine’s charity, ... continue reading

Dear Mrs Mercier As Madame Melon says SHE has not written to you I enclose her note that you may see how the matter stands. I hope she will have a satisfactory answer about the Grand Bienfacteur

Yours truly C M Yonge

My dear [name erased] I am sending you Keightley by this post, I must ask Macmillan to send you Pearson as I have only got a Mudie’s copy here – I think I shall go to Brighstone in Whitsunweek, when I would try to get to Bonchurch to see you

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Miss Sewell, Will Friday the 21st suit you for my coming for a conference? If you think there is any thing for me to bring let me know before Wednesday. I am going, I believe, to New College on the 31st, so that I can take anything for you.

I don’t like to give up the French spelling of the names, I don’t think Count of is a parallel, since that is translated, but I ... continue reading

My dear Mr Moor Your letter followed me home from Brighstone whence I returned on Wednesday. I will give you 10/ for St Pauls church when next I have an opportunity, but on Monday I am going to Oxford and I do not come back till the 12th

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

Dear Mr Liddon Thank you for your very kind answer. A letter will be an excellent way of conveying your recollections. I think considering what Hursley Vicarage was, it would have been perfect treason to have made notes of the daily life and conversation - What seems to me most wanted is something to give an idea of Mr. Keble’s greatness and his championship - and this Sir J Coleridge writing from an equality and without ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan I hope to call on either Friday or Saturday I cannot say which but I think the morning of Saturday

If this will not do, let me know at 21 Craven Terrace Paddington

I will bring back Julius Caesar and another book of yours

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Arthur Here is the chapter of polyglote, - Whether the Grimmsnomoscope could be added thereto, or you would like it, is another question, the primary one being whether the presumptuous Polly has made any flagrant mistakes. She is very much obliged to you and hopes she is not very troublesome.

I hope you found Tim convalescent under the care of his devoted nurse.

I had an amusing dinner party that evening, my neighbours being [[person:2033]Lord ... continue reading

Dear Miss Ingelow I enclose a note from a friend of mine, a young clergyman’s wife, who is as you see trying to raise the money for an Organ for her husband’s Church in the close neighbourhood of the White Horse of Berkshire

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

Madam, I send you herewith the payment for the first half of your pretty story of Campanella which I think greatly liked by all the readers of the Monthly Packet

Yours truly C M Yonge

My dear Mrs Curteis I send the gains of Mrs Twitch and of the bits of correspondence. St Canace’s Jackdaw is in type waiting till he can get in, and I think the Story of a Dream will probably be in before Alec as it is so much shorter and I think it is very good

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Arthur Since you are so good to Polly, here are the two chapters you missed come in pursuit of you. You see her lls have exhausted the printers’ whole stock which accounts for the odd appearance of the latter sheet

I do not know if it is a monstrous presumption to treat those Italian articles that get compounded with the prepositions as representing the lost instrumental and locative cases- The French grammar claims en (in ... continue reading

My dear Arthur Clark gives oinos as an original form of Ýíïò, and also of nous, but from the way he bracketted it I fancied he meant it for a form of one dialect, I ought to have verified it.

I see the misunderstanding that brought me wrong in the vocatives - thank you. About the English apostrophe S I meant to say more when I had more space, I only put it there to stand for ... continue reading

Dear Mr Furnivall I have a friend belonging to a Cornish family staying with me, and she thinks her relations competent to look over the Cornish which is not naughty English, so she is sending it to them, and they will return it to you

Yours truly C M Yonge

My dear Irene You introduced the Young Gosling to me in her eggshell long ago, and I am sure the brood with [sic for will] be very happy to have her. I send [passage missing where signature cut out] is our senior member and chief manager. The first questions will come on the first of October, it is of no use to try to get them done in September. Even Mother Goose herself is going to ... continue reading

My dear Marianne Here we are, after having, I think, done very well on our journey. We met Miss Martin on board the steamer. I forget whether I told you that she had begged to come at the same time for the benefit of our escort, and though we had rather have been alone, she was very helpful and pleasant. She is the editor of the Sunday Library, which is the way we fell in with ... continue reading

My dear Marianne- The day went in this way yesterday---towards eleven o’clock there was a bell, and we all went down and wandered in the garden till everybody was assembled, then we went to M. Guizot’s study and had prayers, he reading a chapter of St. Matthew, and Mme. de Witt making a short prayer of it, ending with the Lord’s Prayer. Then came the post and breakfast, upon rissoles, fried potatoes, fruit and vin ordinaire, ... continue reading

My dear Marianne- Yesterday was so rainy that there really is very little to say about it. The breakfast was enlivened by our being told that Madame Adelaide always had a set of bonbons placed beside the seat of each member of her brother’s cabinet whenever they met, and that they were of a superior quality or not according as to whether she liked the ministry or not. M. Guizot said he had the experience of ... continue reading

My dear Marianne- This last day will be a very quiet one, for M. de Witt is gone to a horse-fair at Falaise, and Julian, Frances and Miss Martin are gone with him, starting at eight this morning, and coming home at eleven at night; unluckily I could not go, and Mme. de Witt caught a bad cold yesterday and I fear will not be good for much to-day. Caen had to be given up because ... continue reading

My dear Marianne-

Here is our last morning here, at least so I hope, for I ended the day yesterday by a collapse, and instead of spending the evening with M. Guizot, had to lie on my back in my room all the evening. However, I am much mended, and hope to be in thorough repair before we start at 12 o’clock. Madame de Witt’s cold was very bad yesterday and she only came out at ... continue reading

My dear Frances Here is the autograph of M Guizot’s that I promised to get for you. If you could only see his collection. A bit of rough copy of one of Bossuet’s sermons, a brown scrap of the Chevalier Bose written out of the midst of the plague, an abject letter of Murat saying he was expelled from his kingdom for having followed La Système Britannique a curious letter of old Napoleon about a rising ... continue reading

Miss Yonge would be much obliged if Messrs Macmillan would send three copies of the Heir of Redclyffe directed to

Miss Buffham Miss Sturges Bourne’s Testwood Southampton

My dear Duke I felt as if I must write to my uncle yesterday, I hope it was not troubling him when so many must be writing. It seems still like a dream to me, partly from the being so far away that everything must needs look and go on as usual, however much I may see with my mind’s eye how all must be looking at Puslinch and how sad and changed the look out ... continue reading

My dearest Mary Thank you so much for that kind letter, and for your message this morning. But I do find that I am not fit to come, I am so much knocked up to-day, having before not quite recovered from the effects of hot journeys and strange food. And I would not give you the care and trouble of a breakdown just now.

How are you all passing through this Sunday; I seem to have seen ... continue reading

My dear Mary My thoughts have verily been with you, waking and going to bed, and at that twelve o’clock, when I could see the place and almost hear the bell and think of you all. It is a great comfort to hear of Uncle Yonge’s peace and resignation, and to read his letters so thoroughly himself in all ways. I am always thinking of those words over James’s and Charles’s tablet, and how blessed and ... continue reading

My dear Florence Thank you for your kind note; I am glad you are at St. Cross again. I will try to come and see you as soon as I can. My dear cousin Anne had not been strong for many years, but was quite in her usual health till forty-eight hours before the end. Then as she was going upstairs at night a dreadful attack in the head came on, just what several of the ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Johns, Thank you for your kind invitation but I never know how to get out early enough for a one o’clock luncheon. Helen’s lessons last me till half past eleven, and if I do not work from that time till two, I can get nothing done, and as I am going from home the week after next, I am more hurried than is convenient, so that I cannot well spare the morning hours. ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan I shall see Miss Johns on Saturday and have a consultation with her.

I have been prevented from setting about the Storehouse by the almost sudden death - the first day of this month - of one of my dear cousins - the one on whom I relied for looking out the copies of the books that I was to have from Puslinch. I have not been willing to trouble her sister to ... continue reading

My dear Edith I should think that it was a case for Miss Twining’s Home at 21 New Ormond Street for Incurables, but I believe it is very difficult to get in, as she has only 27, and they are paid for to about half the amount of their cost, though I do not know what the weekly amount is. They also take Incurables at Clewer, for a servant of Mrs Keble’s is there. I think ... continue reading

My dear Uncle,

[rest of letter cut off. The reverse reads]

me depends much on what the parish consists of. I think he did not enter upon the field sports because they were disposed of by the

[rest cut off. The signature is on the front]

your affectionate niece C M Yonge

My dear Mr Moor This is what Mrs Arnold says, and I should think the terms as fair as could be expected. She is not a very charming looking person, but her husband has been half over the world and will probably be entertaining --- I wish I could send this over to you today, but our man is laid up with a bad cold --- Anything more you like me to do, I will ... continue reading

My dear Miss Sewell, I shall be very glad to see you on the 2nd and hope we shall do a great deal of business together

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Arthur I am greatly satisfied about ci, reasoning from the tendency to use there in old English as in the case of thereof for which its is a barbarous substitute. The complication of Italian pronouns of all sorts is very curious, and makes me wish Italian had a Brachiet. I suppose someone will soon do a good comparative grammar for these unfortunate moderns. I wish you would.

I am sure I have a defence for ... continue reading

My dear Louisa, I am so much obliged to you for that letter, I think the giving a set of necessary tables to be learnt by heart is an excellent idea which I had not thought of. I had come to your conclusion about questions. I had been always used to them with school children, but Helen and Arthur have minds and memories awake enough not to want to be badgered with questions. The plan I ... continue reading

My dear Arthur Your letter and the book arrived together yesterday just as I was setting off from home so that I could only glance at it, and see that ‘Polly’ is likely to be very much edified by it, and to thank you very much.

Pray excuse my having written the wrong way of my paper, I have only just found it out. Here is a chapter of Polly come, which I enclose. Being away from ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Johns, I should be much obliged if you would propose me as a member of the Literary and Scientific Society. My sister in law would like her eldest girl to attend the classes if they take place, especially the Natural history ones. I suppose the details of management have yet to be settled and perhaps you will then let me know whether we had better subscribe not only for her, but also for ... continue reading

My dear Mary Your letter met me at the Station on my way home, and I hope that the fog of Wednesday was less bad for uncle Yonge though more disagreeable than frost would have been. There was one continuous fog all the time I was away, and it is very bad for Ottery where there is a bad low typhoid fever among the poor. I found Sir John better than I expected with no cough, ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Mercier, Your recollections of Mr Peabody are very touching, and I hope they will appear in February - January is pretty well done for! I am sorry for the blunder about Christabel, it came of lending the book and trusting to memory

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Marianne Well, we have our Bishop, and I feel we really have. I never saw a Bishop in our throne, and I never saw the Cathedral like what it was to-day. I really feel some parts of the day were among the best delights of my life. To see that dear old Cathedral which in some respects is one of the things I love above all, doing as it ought to do, and ringing ... continue reading

My dear Mary, I hope you are strong enough to bear with all the tasks of Christmas, and to feel its joys, through the sorrow that such recurring Seasons bring. I had a day of great happiness at the Enthronement it was such a pleasure to welcome such a Bishop and the whole multitude who filled the Cathedral seemed to have one heart The Hallelujah chorus at the end was so very hearty The 309 clergy ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan You will think there is no end to the irons we have in the fire. But the Population of an Old Pear Tree would be finished if we had not lost a number, and had to renew it. I send you the earlier chapters. The places for the woodcuts are marked in the margin.

But my chief reason for writing is to ask if you have heard of Beugnot’s memoirs - he was ... continue reading