[Headed 'Extract of a letter from Miss Charlotte Yonge']

'I am quite inclined in the main to agree with your protest.

1st. That the birch should be substituted for the cane in schools

2nd. That no one should inflict corporal punishment but the Head teacher

3rd. That the punishment should never be irregular.

I do not think a good master or mistress would have to inflict such punishment except in extreme cases but it would be most mischievous ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes

Thank you. Mr Smith generously sends me £50 in January £40 for my editorship and £10 for the subeditor. The other payments this month are for

Angela, Miss Alice Weber 10 Randolph Road Maida Hill

The Georgian Princess Miss Dempster Villa Rey Cannes

(She is author of Vera and rather a great gun, so should have full pay)

Papers on Rome The Rev Wm Jeffreys Hills Beaufort Road Winchester

St Paul Miss Selina Gaye 14 Artesian Road Bayswater

Miracle Plays Alfred Pollard Esq British Museum

Old World Legend Mrs Keir Moilliet Abbot’s Legh Malvern

I ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Drew

No book ever was quite equal to the Conversations with Cousin Rachel, which I believe Masters still publishes. It may here and there seem rather antiquated, but the solid part is of all times. Then there is a little book called ‘Girls’ - published by Skeffington, and one by Lady Barker, published by Hatchard in connection with G F Sfr. I cannot recollect its name, but Hatchard’s list gives it.

As to fiction, ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes

I am afraid I never answered about the MS. It will not do being too much of the mere novelette. I do not object to such dénouements, but a story ought, I think to turn on something besides.

Miss Coleridge has £5 a year for her work upon Debatable Ground. I do not know if that was mentioned but she has not had it yet. I think you have her new address.

I think you ... continue reading

Dear Mr Smith

Here is the receipt with many thanks. I ought to have returned Madge Wylie sooner. If of the right length, it would be a grand thing to have a Greek story for the Christmas number it would be so much out of the ordinary beat. I have three or four come in already, not at all bad ones - but I hope they may still be excelled

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Miss Butler

I am afraid that there would not be good room for your paper till the end of the year—I mean Jany 1889. I agree with you that those old letters are full of deep interest, and such curiously unexpected traits come out in them.

You will see in a note in the next Monthly Packet a very odd thing just disinterred out of some papers of my great-great-great grandfather about a tradition ... continue reading

My dear Mary

I am very glad you have this respite, it is so much better for you all. And you must be glad of time to put things in order, and see about Sister Sarah. I send the answer to the Febry question as no doubt you meant to keep them all together. I have put in your apology and I cant put in the Jany class list now- as the printers must ... continue reading

Dear Madam

Here is my autograph hoping that the Octave may have a bright Easter

yours truly Charlotte M Yonge

My dear Lizzie

Things are coming all right; Mary Coleridge will be ready for me on the 29th, so I shall have the week before for sights of the dear people.

Here am I writing letters instead of decorating, for I have got laid up with an attack of shingles; however, as it began on Sunday, though I did not know what it was, I hope it will soon finish off.

I wish someone (not a ... continue reading

Dear Madam,

The copy right of Monthly packet stories remains with the author, so that you are free to republish King Pepito

Yours truly C.M. Yonge

My dear Miss Ingelow

Your letter has just come to me here in the midst of the steep hills and narrow valleys of North Devon. I think I must have been 2 years old when I saw the baby in the blue shawl, as my birthday is in August, and we generally went into Devon in the autumn. I do not think I taught myself to read, as I was then an only child much looked ... continue reading

My dear Miss Barlee

The Bishop of Madagascar has sent me this sad history of devastation asking to have it made known in the Net, so I send it to you direct. It has wandered a little as I am making visits in Devonshire but I hope to be at home by the end of the month.

yours sincerely C M Yonge

Dear Mr Innes

If you look at the notice at p. 499 of the May no and 599 of the June you will see the fees as to questions fully explained. In fact I do not know what more there is to say about them.

Bishop Jenner has carefully looked over the Prayer book Lessons and returned them to me and I am going over them with his criticisms. Half is quite ready if you want it ... continue reading

Dear Mr Dean

Thank you most heartily for the kind thought of sending me this gratifying testimony to what the actions themselves can inspire

yours very truly C M Yonge

Dear Mr Innes,

I have just managed to insert time in the notice in my last proof - Is it impossible to consider the separate sheet of class list-? Church history takes up 5 pp this time, and if another 5pp is absorbed, what will be left of the poor old M P- ?

I suppose £25 is the first sum, but it is curious to find how time and trouble in literary matters are in inverse ... continue reading

My dear Miss Bourne

Thank you, I wish I saw my way, but I have been five weeks in Devonshire, and I cannot go forth again so soon, as there is a great deal on hand, and lee way to make up before another holiday We have to hunt for an Infant School mistress as our very excellent one marries the master and retires. It is good for him, but bad for us. ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes,

People are continually writing in the Autumn to ask me to tell them of cheap easy dramas to be acted by their pupils - gentle or simple. I have just had to decline two such plays for the Packet because I do not think they suit in a magazine and I have no room but I do believe that to published them in a very cheap form at so much per dozen copies ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes

Miss Robertson’s two papers Home Daughters and Power are quite safe, only there has not been room for them yet. Does she want them back?

I find I cannot get Plataea into the Christmas number, it must come in a regular one. I sent off the bill of fare for the Xmas no yesterday. The first story is Friday’s Child, which I think would afford the best illustration. The little boy listening to the ... continue reading

My dear Miss Bourne

Indeed I would gladly if I could, but months ago Professor Freeman asked me to come and see Hannah Mores villages, and hear his recollections of her, and the time has fixed itself for next week, and after that comes harvest - and dedication feasts - and Mission Guild meeting, and I am afraid I cannot do it though I am very sorry not to see you again this year before ... continue reading

Dear Madam

I am exceedingly sorry for this, but I have nothing to do with those advertisements which are entirely the publisher’s affair I will send him your letter at once

yours truly C M Yonge

Dear Mr Macmillan

I have a story all but finished which I think might be printed before this season is over. It is in 30 chapters and is finished to within 6 of the end.

The difficulty is what to call it. The period is from 1681 to 1696 the chief interest a youth who has been thought a changeling and who disappears for 7 years during which he is supposed to be murdered - but is ... continue reading

I am exceedingly enjoying those dear old times. It is such a living over again of the dear golden age of our lives. I have made a few notes in pencil. . . I quite dreaded the first wedding. I keep it for my last hour before going to bed. I think I must put in when all the children were found on the landing ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes

I think you must have heard from Mrs Lennard by this time, as she mentioned, in a letter I had yesterday, having heard from you. I was out all day and could not write.

Miss Hugessen is ill and cannot do her paper this month but there are to be retrospective questions. I think the same notice will do. I will write the notices but I think I shall have to ask for an ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes

The copies to Canon Warburton were for presentation to the Central libraries of our Diocesan Society for Higher Religious Education.

I imagine that half a sheet will be quite enough, giving me 4 pages besides those for index and title which I always grudge but I cannot tell till I get the list of make up.

I see Chapman and Hall’s M S will not do. I much dislike stories in dialect and indeed I ... continue reading

My dear Lady Frederick-

Gillian was very naughty, rather I think from want of knowledge of the world than anything else, besides spirit of opposition. I am glad you like Jane, somehow she has erected herself to me into the heroine. I find myself living in sympathy with my old people rather than the young. But I really do shrink from bringing Dr. May and Ethel on the stage again, he must be grown so old. ... continue reading