My dear Mrs Elgie

I have a stupid cold in my head. If it gets fine, I will come down at 2, if I see Miss Davies go by in the fly, but I thought she was not coming in rain. If she does come, and the rain goes on I am afraid I must ask her to look in on me on her way, I should not mind the damp or this slight ... continue reading

My dear Cyril

Thank you for your story. Here is one for you in return.

The Boy who rode on a Saddle of Mutton

There was a little boy who always got whatever he cried for. One day he was at dinner with his father and mother, there was a large piece of meat in a dish. He heard them call it a Saddle of mutton. ‘O’ said he ‘I must ride on ... continue reading

My dear Miss Sewell What do you say to the name, and the page—as we have in the 1st Crusade, shall you have Gibbon’s first Crusaders at Constantinople.

(N.B.—Gibbon did not blunder about the Athanasian Creed, but the American Church was not in his time.)

And is Anselm to come in.

I have sent for the introduction to re write [sic] it.

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mrs Johns,

It shall not be my fault but my misfortune if I do not see the diversions of Winton House on Tuesday - I was going from home on Monday, but I have just put it off.

I wish Mr Johns’s lectures had been after noon ones. Then I could have come! The Skeleton seems waiting till publishing matters are less dead.

I hope this great evening is a sign that you are pretty ... continue reading

My dear Miss Dampier,

Here are your books with many thanks, and the Scotch one. It is the Edinburgh baillie who is worth reading—the other is horrid. I will get the rest of Mademoiselle as soon as I can and send her or bring her.

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Cousin Mary,

I am glad you like my books. I think there are one or two more that you have not seen, the Stokesley Secret which is about the size of Countess Kate, and is most of it fun, Kenneth, which is about a boy and girl in the Retreat from Moscow, and some short stories for poor children, called Langley School, Friarswood Post office, Leonard the Lion heart and [[cmybook:25]Ben Sylvester’s ... continue reading

My dear Mary, There are very anxious accounts of poor uncle James, the last Kate Low had seemed to think he must give himself up to be an invalid, I think however that the power of bearing confinement often comes with weakness, in those who have been most active – and what a blessing his wife is. What should we have done but for her? I do not like the accounts of Alethea Pode’s ... continue reading

Dear Mrs Mercier, I enclose a cheque for the remainder of Campanella and send at the same time a proof of Mr Peabody, hoping you will not sacrifice the modest request which seems to me too good to be lost.

Thank you for Miss Tucker’s address I hope she has heard from Mr Warne by this time

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

Lady Betty is an admirable story

Miss Yonge begs to return her best thanks on behalf of Bishop Patteson to Mr Fielder and his congregation for their Epiphany contribution to the Melanesian Mission

My dear Mary I knew this loss would be one to come home to you especially, so often as you and uncle James have consulted together over illness and so much as he loved and trusted you. It grieves on to look back upon the sad anxious disappointed life it has been, with those strong vehement and always kind and generous aims so seldom successful- at least in that part of his life that I ... continue reading

My dear Miss Dampier Do you think you and your sister could manage to come and spend an evening here while Gertrude Walter is staying with me? I do not ask you to dinner because she cannot go down to it and would have much more pleasure if you would drink tea with us – any evening except Saturday the 22nd or Monday or Tuesday the 24th and 25th would suit us, if you will choose ... continue reading

. . . Kensington. I have just been having the account of the labours of Boxing day when from 2.30 to 12.30 at night there had to be one incessant round of diversions to keep the girls out of mischief. No wonder she finishes her letter by saying she can only feel thankful when Christmas is over. I directed a lady the other day to find out about the G W H S, for her ... continue reading

My dear Christabel What that Ivy did about her questions I cannot conceive, for both Frog and Cricket say they have had none, and yet there are some answers come in from Double Daisy and from nobody else

I have got Frances’s lame sister with me, and she is always pleased to help me by copying, so she has written out the questions for me Will you ask the next? After these that I ... continue reading

My dear Miss Sewell, Here is a demand from the London library for you. I hope you have done with the book.

The weather shews that you were wise. I hope to see you as soon as it looks more mild

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

Gosling questions for February

Write the history of Henry VIII's expedition to France.

What parallel stories does folklore in different countries present to the adventures of Ulysses in the Odyssey?

Mother Goose

My dear Mary Very likely the bill will come out tomorrow, I think Mr Hart may hold his hand now, as the school is in existence. I am not quite sure without asking Mr Layland, but I really think those photographs have raised £20. Yes, dear Anne did send 2/2 every half year for the penny club. It shews how long ago it began that the girl she first took is a ... continue reading

Dear Madam, I am afraid I cannot tell you the exact sum required for the maintenance of a child in the Melanesian school in Norfolk island So much of the produce grown on the farm is used for the purpose that the calculation is not easy, but I think it may be estimated at about £8 for each scholar, though I do not speak with any certainty

Yours truly C M Yonge

My dear Christabel Yes, the Coral islands and King René will do very well, but really the Goslings are so long that I do not think they are worth keeping up. Cricket and Double daisy are the only ones who have sent answers and that only to Henry VIII , I thought Ulysses might have been so entertaining but I believe nobody that does not live with a public library ever has books enough. ... continue reading

My dear Arthur I shall put your corrections in, I always had I confess believed that Bombastes was in Hudibras, but I ought not to have done so, as I never read it.

As to the Rod being a Celtic word, I did not make away with that because I thought it was curious that the sound should suggest the same idea independently or perhaps by some lingering of the root in the old Italian dialects.

But I ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Mercier I never did get any thing from translators of my writings, though once or twice I have had offers - they never came to anything

One has the power to refuse for a year after publication - not after - but I imagine there is not much to be gained by so doing - and that the translators are generally too poor to make any payments, but the best way might be in ... continue reading

Dear Mr Freeman , I waited to thank you for your kind note to see if there was any chance of so getting rid of the old edition of History of Christian Names, as to make it reasonable to put an abridgment much corrected in hand - But unluckily the book was printed in the anarchy of the J W Parker establishment and the edition was too large, so that I do not know how to ... continue reading

My dear Miss Warren

That S P C K is a very queerly governed thing - more like Venice than anything else I think

But I should be very glad to be at work with you again! and to have your pretty Saints day stories -

The only doubt I have is how soon space will be manageable, as I do not see to the end of Daniel at this moment, as all the translation is not ... continue reading

My dear Arthur Authorities for the wars of the Roses are very scarce and bad. I believe Sharon Turner is the modern who has done them up best, and his notes guide to the places where he gets his authorities. I believe the best, next to the Paston letters are Polydore Vergil, and a certain Abbot /(I think) Welthamstead of St Albans who was a great Lancastrian till Queen Margaret let her wild Borderers ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Johns, My musical friends are much pleased with Miss Mays’s first song, but would like if possible to review the three together. Would it be possible to trust me with the other two copies to send to him? I am so interrupted this afternoon that I must cut short my note

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Christabel I have my doubts whether you are not in the right and Goosedom has had its day. I do not think that now I have no one to read and discuss the answers with I do my part with the same spirit and effectiveness, and there are not enough Goslings acquainted with each other to keep the thing up with animation. Gaggles used [to] do something, but there has been no ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan I agree with Miss Sewell as to the alteration, otherwise it will do very nicely. I hope to be at home on the 1st or 2nd of June

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Madam, I have been having some talk and consultation about the Godmother’s Readings with people who have so much to do with schools as to be really an influence

First, I am advised strongly to do - what I proposed at first - to have the Scripture part, without the comment, printed separately, as cheap as may be, for the children to use, while the teacher has the one with the comment. I do believe ... continue reading

My dear Christabel The Goslings will not die. I find we had better kill the useless members, and get some quite young ones in keeping the questions easier- We have now left only Cricket, Frog, Double Daisy and Pixie to whom is to be added

The Honble Alethea Colborne, Beechwood Plympton

I am not sure what she is to be called - Can you still be Secretary even if you have no time for the Questions? ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Mercier Here is that charming little story at last.

One thing might I ask? Could not poor Maria’s one note of admiration be changed from Lor! I have rather the feeling that it is an abridgement of a more sacred word.

Did you mean Marian to blunder about feeding cows and milking chickens - ? Also did you send me a capital paper about fashion?

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mrs Mercier

Here is that charming little story at last.

One thing might I ask? Could not poor Maria’s one note of admiration be changed from Lor! I have rather the feeling that it is an abridgement of a more sacred word.

Did you mean Marian to blunder about feeding cows and milking chickens - ? Also did you send me a capital paper about fashion?

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Sir

I am much obliged by your kind present of your little book on Wells Cathedral, which I shall read with much pleasure.

Here is the number of Macmillan creating further dismay in me by shewing that Scottish scholars at Oxford were not so uncommon as to be dangerou[sly] [text missing at edge] suspicious.

With many thanks Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Miss Dampier I must tell you and your sister how sincerely I grieve for you. I think the bereavement of the last parent is the sorrow that an unmarried woman always feels most, it seems so entirely to end the sense of being a child at home to be thought for and cared for, and to leave one so desolate, without shelter from the world.

I suppose it is that having been trained ... continue reading

My dear Pixie I don't know if you have heard how nearly Goosedom perished from exhaustion and how it has revived again, after throwing off a few idle members. I did not throw you out because I thought we had had some very impossible questions lately, and we are going to keep them shorter and easier.

Will you send the answers when you get them to Bluebell ie

the Honble Alethea Colborne Beechwood Plympton

There are two more new members ... continue reading

My dear Sir William- I hope it is not very presumptuous to follow my impulse of not exactly congratulating you, but expressing my great pleasure in the award of this mark of honour to you, coming, it seems to me, in an especially gratifying manner, as being so entirely free from all connection with party and at a time when I suppose it cannot be as a matter of course, but as showing how high real ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Keble How very stupid and ungrateful you must have thought me, but I never saw your Son’s letter when I opened – and answered yours, and only found it this morning.

It satisfies me all the more as being what I was always inclined to think.

yours affectionately C M Yonge

Dear Mr Macmillan, Have you made any arrangements with American publishers about my Scripture Readings? I think I might perhaps do so, but I should like first to know whether you have any views.

Miss Sewell is very anxious to know when the selections are to come.

I suspect you are from home.

Yours truly C M Yonge

My dear Mr. Butler I have two kind letters to thank you for, first about the T and secondly about the war - I wish the authority for the former was more direct and conclusive, it is so very beautiful.

The Monthly Packet of October will be quite German enough to please you, having the journal of a lady at Homburg and a translation by Miss Sewell of 'Der Wacht am Rhein', but I confess that I ... continue reading

I do not go on the principle of no love at all, and letting nobody marry, but I do not think it will do to have it the whole subject and interest of the story.

My dear Miss Warren, Did you see in the Guardian the death of ‘Elizabeth Jane wife of the Revd Thomas Keble’?- my own dear Mrs Keble’s sister. She had but two days illness, and her husband is left feeble and broken. Nobody expected him to live through the winter but she was strong healthy person and it seemed as if her life was absolutely necessary to him - I have however written to the son, who ... continue reading

Sir,

I am obliged by your interesting paper on the Lambeth Chapel. I should like to insert it but, I cannot tell when I shall be able to do so, so if you are in haste for its appearance I had better not retain it

Yours truly C M Yonge

Dear Miss Yonge Your letter has only reached me this morning. February will do very well for my Fairy tale to appear, as far as I am concerned—I only wanted to know its fate, & shall be glad to have it in the Monthly Packet rather than worked into one of my books.

I have directed Macmillan to send you my new book, which I hope will please you

yrs truly E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen

My dear M. Guizot My brother begs me to convey his best thanks as well as my own to you for so kindly sending us your pamphlet. I am afraid the sky has darkened even more in the short time that has elapsed since its conclusion, and that the enemy are nearer to you. It seems to me that English sympathy has been greatly gained by this gallant resistance. I hear so many ... continue reading

Gentlemen Are you disposed to undertake the publication of four historical tales by Madame Guizot de Witt, translated from MSS which have never yet appeared in France or England?

The subjects are the Countess of Montfort’s defence of Brittany, the childhood of Blaise Pascal and his sister, and some scenes from Madame de Sevigné’s life, and to these I could add Francis Xavier in Japan, translated by myself, but which has appeared in the Monthly Packet ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan Do you not think that the parallel history should come out in time for Schools to set themselves up with this winter. The one I wrote it for is crying out for it, and it seems in vain to wait for a neater finish to France than the fall of the Empire.

I am glad you give hopes of clearing off the old History of Christian Names I have them bristling with corrections, and ... continue reading