the Grange - Mrs Shipley called while I was out, decorating yesterday perhaps with a view to G F S

Yours affectionately C M Yonge

I do not think any scheme succeeds that has not a decided religious object, and in my mind the real difficulty is that this plan seems to be Lectures plus Church, not like the original conception of a College, education primarily for the direct service of religion to which other students were admitted. If it is to be merely a boarding house on good principles where young ladies may ... continue reading

My dear Mr Freeman,

I am going to take two or three days more that I may finish up Philip IV and his three disagreeable sons, who will complete the 2nd chapter - the 3d is to be the Hundred Years War, the 4th the Italian wars, the 5th must go from Louis XIII to the end of Louis XV, and ought to be called the Absolutism of the King. I expect you will find ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan

Thank you, I shall be very glad to know approximately the value of those copy rights. I suppose they are worth far more to me than they would be to anyone else, and that if I wished to raise a sum of money, say £5000 or 6000, it would be better to use them as security, since the proceeds would enable me annually to pay off something than to attempt the sale of ... continue reading

My dear Miss Medhurst Thanks for your verses which no doubt will please many, though I have never set foot in Brighton and so have no knowledge of the place. I never thanked you for the good news of Mrs Mercier who I hope is quite well again

Yours truly C M Yonge

My dear Mrs Harte

If you can spare the 12th chapter of Disobedient Cecil please send it direct to Messrs Mozley at Derby, as they want to set it up

yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mrs Buston

We shall be very glad to see you and Miss Dampier at 3 o’clock on Wednesday - I shall have to leave you at 4, as it is the day of the G F S quarterly meeting, when the girls pay in their money - and I read to them

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Marianne

I heard this morning that good old Mr. Gibbs is gone - on Friday night - his flowers fresh in our church. We had a very successful day, and no doubt Amélie has told you about it, the Confirmation afterwards, thirty-five of our children, the girls led off by Helen, Amy, and Gerty and six of the school-girls with such sweet solemn faces, and a Cranbury man who had been baptized on ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik

I have stupidly lost Mr Freeman’s London address - would you be so kind as to send it to me on a card. I want to settle about divisions of chapters in the French writing. Shall I finish all, and then abridge, or do you want to begin printing?

yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Miss Freeman

The first week in May will suit me very well and I hope we shall be at our best between banksia roses and nightingales. I am afraid however that I really have only room for one and that I must not have the pleasure of having your sister though I am very sorry to be so inhospitable, but when you see our household you will understand. I have a friend ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Warburton

A great many thanks for your kind present. It is my favourite period of history and I am sure Mr Warburton will have treated it in a more kindred spirit than I think has been shewn in all the books of this series, some of which have disappointed me especially the Wars of the Roses, but I am sure I shall enjoy reading this.

Yours very sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mr Graves

I am afraid I must not take Second Fiddles though I am much obliged to you for it. We are changing our printing house, and I want to have only matters of necessity on my hands just now.

Mr Craik is going to send me a photograph of Bp Patteson’s sculpture. I hope we shall have it in the next edition.

yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mrs Warburton

The Botleigh butter is engaged to Southsea, but at Cranbury whence I have it, they make a great deal on Mondays and Thursdays, and send it to Hailes. If you like, and will let me know how much a week you want, I will see whether the bailiffs wife can send it direct to you; but it is always liable to fail if there is a large party in the house.

I ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik

Clay has sent me proofs of the French history, but would it not be better to wait to print till I have finished, as the limits are fixed?

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Christabel

The 1st of July is the right day, but it is convenient to be beforehand with it, as things get much better read than in the great mass of strangers. Miss Bramston has sent a splendid one called the Isle of Progress, - all about 500 years hence. Fanny Awdry has done rather a nice one of the boy type, and I have a few more but dying is so much ... continue reading

Dear Mrs Swinton

Thank you for your kind card. I hope to appear in the afternoon, but it can hardly be till late as unluckily there is a G F S working committee at 1.30 on the 3d of July but I must get away from it as soon as I can

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Christabel

Writing about cheerfulness with a heavy cold in one’s head on a summer day, may be as hard as writing in the midst of a wet cricket match but I am trying to do it. I shall direct this to Hanwell, not knowing where you are at Chiddingfold I suppose with the Humberts. Have you heard that Mr Trant Bramston is going to be married, and so Miss Bramston’s occupation comes ... continue reading

My dear Miss Frere

You have chosen a very cold summer for your visit to England and I am afraid you must think you have come there in the winter by mistake. We have had some revolutions in the state of the Monthly Packet, a new partner at Mozley’s and a new printer, and my effort for some time past has been to get old material finished up. I have still so many verses on hand ... continue reading

My dear Lord Bishop

I shall be very grateful for permission to put in the Monthly Packet a copy of this excellent little paper -

[rest of page missing]

. . . recorded

I think too there is a little awkwardness in the piece about hospitality I do not think it will induce people to exercise it

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. . . will not be encouraged by it

Yours respectfully C.M. Yonge

My dear Annie-

I believe that the fact of having the renewal of the baptismal vow united in our branch of the Church with Confirmation has very much tended to confuse people's minds as to what it really is.

A Sacrament it surely is in the sense, as you say, that it is an outward sign of an inward grace, and there is no reasonable doubt that it is Apostolic. The laying on of hands by St. ... continue reading

Dear Madam

You will find the history of the Melanesian Mission kept up in the magazines the Net and Mission Life.

Yours truly C M Yonge

My dear Bishop

I find the apples are come but the arrival was not notified to me - and I had been blaming the rail way! Please tell me what there is to pay for them as I do not think my account came with them I suppose 8/ altogether but I am not sure

A busy week is coming between Diocesan Conference and G F S. How surpassingly lovely are the Autumn tints I gathered 86 ... continue reading

My dear Augusta

I don’t know how it is but there never seems to be room in the Packet. I cannot get in my own Cameos, nor finish up the Three Brides as I meant to have done by two chapters at a time. When I began the York & L Rose I thought both it and Dt Cecil would end at Midsummer, and now I find that they will last on into next ... continue reading

My dear Madam

I well remember the warm interest that Mr Keble took in your poem, indeed one sentence in the notice was his own. The illustrated edition to which you allude of the Christian Year, must I think be either one with some photographs or else one with illuminations both of which were got up with little or no sanction from Mr Keble

Parker of Oxford is the only publisher to whom you could apply, but ... continue reading

My dear Mary

Thank you, this is charming! I do not know that the fun and the presents need necessarily be connected—could we not have one of those puppet shews where the girls are the puppets? Or could we have your own old Blue Beard, which would be the best fun of all—if it does not take up too much time and space and people. What do you think?

And for our own delectation, we would have ... continue reading