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 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 Sir William, Many warm thanks for sending me Mr Austen Leigh’s kind comment on the Daisies. I believe I enjoyed them most, which is the best way to make a thing prosper. I am afraid the moral is not good but I have always found that what one likes best one does best. As to the crayfish, I did not know that they were so local, having always associated them with rivers and ... continue reading

Miss Yonge would be obliged if Messrs Macmillan would send to

the Revd R Bigg Wither St Thomas’ Home Basingstoke

a copy of each of

The Heir of Redclyffe Heartsease The Daisy Chain The Trial Pillars of the House Scripture Readings with comment Pupils of St John

Dear Mr Macmillan

It is rather difficult to arrange the order of these books. Heartsease was out before the Daisy Chain indeed those four that I numbered first were meant to answer to the four Seasons, and ought to go together

In point of date, the Daisy Chain and the Young Stepmother are the next, but the Daisy Chain Trial and Pillars ought to come together

What is to be done about the lesser historical ones, ... continue reading

Dear Sir

I am obliged for your letter, which confirms the view I have had for many years that it is not possible for a person of a different nationality to draw a thorough portrait of one described from within, as it were. You remember that in dealing with foreign scenes, Scott always took a Scotch or English hero - in whose person he saw all the surroundings

In fact I have never had any intimate knowledge ... continue reading

My dear Lady Frederick I am afraid I cannot give you more than a week, and that the 6th must be the last possible day. I believe I am going to look over the MSS. with Mrs. Sumner and send them off on the 1st, but we can add your report at the end. I hope you are really recovered from the influenza. People are having it at Winchester, but rather slightly.

I always ... 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 M. E. C. I feel strongly impelled to write to you both to thank you for your letter and for St. Christopher's legend. A German lady once sent me a set of photographs of frescoes of his history, where he was going through all sorts of temptations, including one by evil women.

I think I must tell you that the Daisy Chain was written just when I was fresh from the influence and guiding of ... continue reading

Dear Miss Christie, I think I must lend you my Fairy Bower. It was written, as you see, nearly sixty years ago, before the Oxford Movement had become a visible fact, by Mrs. Thomas Mozley, while her husband was vicar of Cholderton. She was Harriet Newman, and though the little book is quite in children's form, it was such as none but a Newman could write.

A little girl, Grace Leslie, goes with her widow ... continue reading

. . .Whether I shall accomplish wishing you and Lady Margaret Hall a good New Year to-day must depend on the need of refreshing the church decorations, which always comes severely on the permanent workers, when the enthusiasm of the festival is over, with their occasional helpers . . . . I sometimes think I could make a dissertation on staying at home in the holidays and getting every one's work to ... continue reading

Dear Madam As far as I can remember the first four tales were Redclyffe Heartsease Hopes and Fears Dynevor Terrace

because I meant them to have some sort of analogy to the four seasons

The Daisy Chain Trial are really connected, and the Pillars of the House came later but picked up on Countess Kate and the Daisy Chain in the course of the story -

Scenes and Characters had been written long before, but was taken up again in [[cmybook:184]Two Sides of ... continue reading

. . . But I must tell you of something that has given me the greatest pleasure. About two years ago a lady belonging to the Mission at Calcutta wrote to me that a Hindu student had been so much impressed with the Pillars of the House as to accept Christianity, and that he was going to be baptized. So I sent out one of those illuminated cards that are given at baptisms (Henry Bowles ... continue reading

My dear C C I am doing my best to write to Macmillan I think it is our only hope and rather a forlorn one- and explaining some of its history and scope hoping not to say too much or too little, nor to shew personal feeling

But I am sure it is a thing to be considered how to have a high class magazine for young persons, as I have been telling him and ... continue reading