wold is the termination[.] Canon Benham’s Diocesan Chronicle calls him Athelwold

C M Yonge

Dear Mr Macmillan Of course it will not make much difference to me whether ‘the Long Vacation’ appears in April or September, so it had better be arranged as you have decided.

I should prefer the Royalty of /4 on the American Copyright to an immediate sum.

Might I ask, as I have been before encouraged to do, for a copy of Dean Church’s Life and Letters and also for Sonny Sahib

Yours truly C M Yonge

Dear Miss Hale Thank you for your very interesting letter. I am amused at what you say of Mr Keble calling his father the Governor. I should think it was a domestic name, invented before the slang term arose. I know the family were fond, in their old Fairford days- of pet nicknames and that J K himself was called by his sisters ‘Charles’ for no reason that their friends the Dysons could ... continue reading

Dear Madam I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your cheque.

I think that as your money is invested & producing interest you may as well wait until a short time before 1 April & then give your Bankers instructions to sell sufficient to produce £1000, so that it may be ready a day or two before the 1st

I am yours faithy Chas Wooldridge

Miss Yonge

Dear Madam I feel for your disappointment, and I like the feeling in your story but I cannot help you as my connection with the Monthly Packet was dissolved two years ago. I think your story is one that 20 or 30 years ago would have been liked, but taste has drifted into other directions not always so wholesome and that is probably the reason of the rejection

Yours truly C M Yonge

Your chance for Gonsalvo would be ... continue reading

Dear Sir The kindness of your letter to me emboldens me to send you some observations on the present state of criticism with my name. I have done a good deal of criticism and was for many years an editor besides what I have endured as an author and I can certainly declare that former criticism was really useful to me while what I see now can do good to no one except as an advertisement. ... continue reading

Dear Mr Bullock, I will try to do Raymond Lull in short by the end of next week, I have both the books.

You will be glad to hear that I have had a cheerful letter from Miss Florence Wilford well, and at home with her sister

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mary One knew only too well what it must come to, and that the wounds one knew so well were being opened. Poor Charlotte, one cannot help thinking of her above all though the heaviest loss is to the poor little Cordelia, next to her father, but a mother to a girl so young is an inexpressible loss.

‘The clouds return after the rain’ After all those for whom one grieves the most, ... continue reading

My dear Charlotte How shall I say how I grieve for you in this fresh sorrow so doubled as it is by all you have to care for, the poor little Cordelia I can only say. May comfort come to you under this fresh shadow which God has thought fit to send to you and which must thus have infinite blessings within it

your loving C M Yonge

Dear Madam I have received all the documents from the Insurance Company & also the policy on Mrs Yonge’s life. As I presume the £1000 is still due to you from Mrs Yonge shall you wish to have the policy transferred into your name so as to afford you a security for the amount of any interest or premiums you have paid, or how would you like to have this arranged.

I am yours faithy Chas Wooldridge

Miss ... continue reading

Dear Mr Wooldridge I am afraid I am very ignorant about the term of the loan of the £1000. I cannot say I ever expect Mrs Yonge to pay it back to me. She does not even know that I have paid it off.

If I discontinue the payment for insuring her life, will the future payment of £1000 on her death lapse.

Or if I continue it, or my heirs (for I can hardly expect ... continue reading

Dear Madam If you discontinue the payment of the annual premium on the life policy, it will drop altogether & no sum whatever will be received if Mrs. Yonge were to die. If you decide on this course, the best plan will be to wait until the latter part of next October for the surrender of the policy to the office. They will pay you about £100 for it. If on the other ... continue reading

Dear Mr Wooldridge, I think it will be wise to keep up the insurance on Mrs Yonge’s life. The only further question is whether it should be mentioned in my will that the payment should be continued, and to whom the amount should be paid.

On this I will write to Mr Houseman who made my will.

I enclose the cheque for the insurance understanding that it covers all the houses here and in London

Yours truly C M ... continue reading

Dear Madam Judging from your former letter that you do not expect Mrs. Yonge to pay for the £1000 I think it will be best to have the policy transferred to you. For that purpose it will be necessary that Mrs. Yonge should sign the transfer. Will you kindly write to her & explain this & say that she may expect to hear from me. I have duly recd the cheque for £1.15. ... continue reading

Dear Mr Wooldridge

Mrs Yonge comes to Otterbourne Vicarage this afternoon, and will be in the village till some day next week. I think you had better send the papers to me, as I am not certain whether she will be at the Vicarage or the Grange, and I will get her signature

Please pay the 4/ and add to your account

Yours truly C M Yonge

My dear Mrs Trebeck Thank you for your excellent letter, I hope you are going to circulate it and that it is not to be only diocesan

What a tower of defence we have lost in Lord Selborne

yours sincerely C M Yonge

Dear Madam I enclose the deed for Mrs. Yonge’s signature in one place only where you will see her name written in pencil. This signature should be made in the presence of a witness who will sign where shewn adding address & occupation, a householder is best, but a servant will do. You must not, of course, be the witness. Please leave the date blank & return me the deed as soon ... continue reading

Dear Madam I expect to receive the Policy from the Norwich Union Office in a day or two & will then forward it to Mrs. Yonge as you wish. You know of course that at the present time the Policy is absolutely your property & stands in your name with the Company

I am yours faithy Chas Wooldridge

Miss Yonge Lady Seaton’s Beechwood Devon

My dear Madam I sent you the Policy on Saturday & I hope by this time you have received it The Policy now is transferred to Miss Yonge she being entitled to it having paid the £1000 & I believe all the interest & premiums, however as she wished me to send it to you I did so. I understood from Miss Yonge that she had certain intentions with regard to the Policy, but ... continue reading

Dear Madam I have sent the policy to Mrs. Yonge as you desired.

I have had a letter from her, she does not seem to understand about it. I have written to her to explain that you having paid the money besides the interest & premiums the policy had to become your property.

I have not told her what you led me to suppose you thought of doing with regard to this policy, as I did not ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan I have a story within three or four short chapters of completion, which I should like to mention in case it should come within the scope of any autumn arrangements.

I think the title might be ‘A Release’. It is founded on a story that Guizot once told me that Mongolfier, the aëronaut gained the affections of a noble young lady, whose parents forced her to become a nun. She appealed to the ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan I hope to send all but the three or four concluding chapters of my story, A Release or Caroline’s French Kindred tomorrow

I should very much like them to appear in St Nicholas, but the difficulty is that the really first part is in the Christmas Number of the Monthly Packet for 1893, and if this story appeared separately, I must rewrite the mise en scene, as I suppose the republication of Caroline’s ... continue reading

My dear Miss Wordsworth I had just got a fresh railway book and studied possibilities, and I find that I had better come by the train that gets in at 4.25 so that I shall be with you by tea time. I propose to go home on Wednesday at 3.15 so as to be able to go to the Cathedral and see my pupil teacher

Yours very sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mrs Blackburn, The book arrived by second post, just after my letter was gone -

I see some of my old friends and some new ones, and the wonderful and horrid young cuckoo, though poor little thing it is only its instinct of tidiness - no worse than killing rats! How curious it is that the American Cuckoo should be a decent domestic mother, while the cow bird acts her part.

You have not so ... continue reading

My dear Augusta It is rather funny that the same post as brought your letter about Lady Blachford’s indignation brought one from an American Correspondent of Gertrude’s saying that she had observed that strict older sisters did generally turn out indulgent Mothers. But I understand it this way. Wilmet had seen that strict laws had not fully answered with Fulbert, Angela or Bernard and the Harewoods were easygoing by nature and also there was ... continue reading

Dear Old Friends, - Will all of you who wish for the dole come to me before eleven o 'clock, and not send by children. Last year many boys came, who, I am sure were not sent by their mothers, and only heard of sixpences given. I should be very sorry to give up the dole that my grandmother found established eighty years ago, but the whole condition of the parish has ... continue reading