Dear Mr Macmillan, I should prefer keeping the Clever Woman uniform with the other tales, as I think a good many people have a set of them, to which they would add it. And I should be scolded by half my friends for coming out in the 3 vol shape!

I am glad the Trial has done well. I see you are advertising a cheap edition. What are to be the terms for it.

I have this morning ... continue reading

My dear Mr Cox [sic], I dare say you will be so kind as to give me a morning in a Bodleian den some day next week -

Would you be so kind as to order for me anything you can find about Maximilian I of Germany - and about the city of Ulm in his time - I want as much anecdote and scenery as I can lay my hands on, wishing to represent him cutting ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I send both title page and the proof of the statuette, which is indeed most beautiful and suggestive. I wrote yesterday about the title page. I could not do so before as I only came home late on Saturday and the Sunday post goes early. I enclose the list of presentation copies

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

Will you be kind enough to send the sheets of the Golden Deeds to Messrs Williams & Norgate for ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I send the second chapter of the Dove because I hardly think the first can be long enough for one of your numbers.

Christina does marry the young baron secretly but most of the adventures concern her sons.

I shall be well pleased with the terms you propose, if the story will answer the purpose.

I sent off one last chapter to the Golden Deeds yesterday

Yours very truly C. M. Yonge

Dear Mr Macmillan I have to thank you for sending me the parcel of German books, which I hope will much add to the correctness of my story. I am not sure however that one has not come for me to which I have no right -Alt-Nordisches Leben Von Dr Karl Weinhold -

Miss Keary told me that you had promised to get for her some Old Northern books, so perhaps it was meant for her. In ... continue reading

Dear Miss Yonge I am writing to Mrs Vaughan & will tell her with how much pleasure I consent to her using the story from Golden Deeds. I will remind you when we reprint, that you may give us the additional story.

I don’t think I ever congratulated you on the marvellous good scotch you give us in the Clever Woman. I, a western man, from the Land of Burns, claim a classical purity in my ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan, This is a quick fire upon a busy man, but there are two or three things to say, and first that Mme de Witt has written to say that the Christian Names have not reached her, and asking whether you have sent them through any Paris bibliothèque where they could be enquired for. I also enclose a direction to which I should like to send a copy of the Golden Deeds. It ... continue reading

Dear Miss Yonge I sent the copy Golden Deeds to the Princess addressed as you wished to her governess by post yesterday. I hope it will reach her soon.

The copy of 'Christian Names' I sent to Mdme de Witt through Messrs Williams & Norgate, as it would have been expensive to send by post, and moreover would have been apt to get bruised and battered, being large and heavy. They explain that they have not parcels ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan, I send a second instalment of the Dove in the Eagle’s Nest, I suppose about enough for another number.

I hope I am to have the proofs, for there is a mention of Maximilian in the first chapter as grown up which I must alter.

I have done two more chapters of Bethlehem, - that is I have written them, but I am not satisfied with the second of them.

Many thanks for the four ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge I ought to have acknowledged the copy for the new number earlier, but I wanted to write you a longer letter which I cant do today after all.

I would be glad to see what more you have written of Bethlehem, when you have satisfied yourself - or at least approximately - who could satisfy themselves on such a subject. The young Artist is ready to work whenever you like.

Shall I pay the ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan, Thanks, I should prefer having the monthly sum in cheques here, but the £200 to be paid to Messrs Hoare. I hope the proofs are coming though it is rather late if the Dove is to come out this month. I am afraid there are some anachronisms in it, and I did not give it the looking over that I should have done if I had thought of not seeing it again.

Here ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge I am exceedingly vexed to find that proofs had not been sent to you of the first number of the 'Dove'. I am afraid that it has been much my fault. But as our Editor has generally been in direct communication with the contributors & has given the printers instructions to send, or sent the proofs himself it did not occur to me, and your notes asking for them did not make ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan, In the first place I have a beautiful photograph to thank you for, which arrived here viâ Nutt and Wells this morning, and the subject of which much excites our speculations, and adds pleasant mystery to our admiration.

Next I return the first sheet of Bethlehem, the appearance of which I like much. I think there should be a text and a verse to each chapter. Do you wish to have each chapter ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan, Many thanks for the cheque for £25 for this month’s Dove. I am not sure whether a letter is still a sufficient receipt, if not please let me know, and I will send a stamped one, but receipt stamps are not easy to come by when one is out of the article, unless we are sending to Winchester, therefore I think it better to acknowledge the cheque at once. And at the ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan I can quite enter into what you say of that first chapter’s meagreness. There were things I wanted to keep in reserve, and I do not think one’s mind gets so worked up to the point /at first as after having gone through all the preliminaries and preparation. I wanted to keep Bethlehem by daylight /on the Gleaning of Right for the Anointing of David, and therefore made less of the scenery ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge, It is most kind of you to take my crude criticism in so good part. I did think of the parts, and your possible motive in dwelling on the opening chapter in the slight way you have done. Still with an eye to what is coming I cannot but think that the opening should be fuller, more sonorous and in a higher key. But I have asked Mr Clay to let ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan, You are very kind about the undertaking, and I certainly should much regret giving it up, if those very capricious things ideas can be brought into accordance with the plan. But if it will not disturb your arrangements very much, I think I had better look to its completion for the autumn of 1866, rather than the autumn of 1865. I never have quite so much time in the summer, or rather ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan Somehow my direction book has been faithless and I have missed Mr Masson’s address, so I am sending the new chapters of Dove etc. direct to you. I am afraid the story may be thought to flag a little just here, but I could not help it, and there is plenty of incident to come after the next division.

I think Miss Sewell’s idea was to divide by periods. I think I should ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge The M S. has come all right. Sending as early as - I am thankful indeed you do, to address him here is the simplest way. His private address is 2 Newton Villas Finchley New Road. N.W.

I shall be very glad to hear about the result of your conference with Miss Sewell. My only feeling in the suggestion I made re - Montfort was that each volume - supposing it is found ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan I think Miss Sewell and I pretty well came to this conclusion that the first of our periods should begin with William the Conqueror and end with the absolution of King John, so as to make its leading idea the great strife for supremacy between Church and State. I believe we have plenty of materials for a volume. She under takes the compilation of the materials, and I am to write the ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge Your scheme as decided by Miss Sewell and yourself seems to me very admirable. The one question is the compactness and vivid unity, which will be hard rather in an [illegible] such as you propose. But with artists like yourself [and] Miss Sewell there should be no difficulty[.] the thing ought to be very interesting indeed.

I have read all the Prince and the Page down to the present month. I think it ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan I send the rest of the MS of the Dove in the Eagle’s Nest as it is all finished now, and I shall be going from home about the beginning of September into Devonshire first, and then perhaps to London some time in October - when I hope I may see you.

How soon will the last chapters of the Prince and the Page be wanted? Since it began to come out I ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge The MS. reached us safely. I will [illegible] distribution in the months

We shall be very glad to see you when you come to town. It is just possible that I may be gone to America, but my wife & sister are at home; and we recently made a valuable addition to our neighbourhood , 'the author of John Halifax',whose husband Mr Craik, has become my partner, has taken a house quite near ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, Thanks for the cheque. I enclose the receipt.

I do not know whether the British Museum has a copy of Theurdanck - probably it would I think, but if you should be in Oxford, there is a beauty at the Bodleian, a much better one than that which I have here, which is only lent to me.

You should also look at the wonderful wood cuts in ‘Der Weise König.’ There is a demon sitting ... continue reading

Dear Miss Yonge I will see Theuerdank somehow though I fear I shall not be at Oxford before I go to America on the 28th. The Bodleian dont let books out - in which they are quite right. Cambridge U.L. does - in which they are quite wrong, though I often benefit by it. I have written to Cambridge. When I see what the pictures look like I will be able to judge how the book ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, Thanks, here are the receipts. I think I once got 5/ in like manner before from the Cape. I am not able yet to speak with any certainty of our plans. We have just offered ourselves to my uncle for the 8th of September, and there is such a vista of relations to stay with when once we get into Devonshire, that I do not think we shall come to London till the ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge on money [?] I enclose a cheque as usual. I am off on a brief holiday to Scotland, my American trip being abandoned for this year. I hope to be home for good & may it be so - by the end of September and quite looking forward to seeing you when you come to London in October. In case you have any point of importance to bring before the press, a ... continue reading

Dear Miss Yonge I am home again and at work, having greatly enjoyed my holiday.

I hope to see you soon in London. Will you kindly give us notice when you are coming. I am anxious to see what can be done, if anything in the way of a vignette for the “Dove”.

Yours ever truly A. Macmillan

Many thanks for the information you kindly sent Mr Craik

My dear Mr Macmillan I enclose the receipt with many thanks. Your letter followed me hither this morning. I think we shall be in these parts about a fortnight longer - and shall then come to a place about a couple of hours of London - whence I hope to run up for a few hours to town, and I shall then be able to talk over matters with you. I fancy it will be somewhere ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan Happening to have an excess of M.S. luggage, I am rather glad to send off an instalment of “the Chaplet of Pearls” instead of packing it up. It threatens to be longer than the Dove, and there is a good deal more still to be written, and probably rewritten.

I believe I omitted to say that it would be the most convenient way to me if you could pay the £235, the balance of ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan, Most of these illustrations I like very much, they are full of life, and the King very dignified, if they are lithographed I suppose it is too late for alteration, but the faces of Eleanor in the second, and of the Page in the first are rather distressing, and I think that in the second the page is rather too short and stocky to give the notion of one who was to ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan I have written a new preface and sent it to Spottiswood. If I did not send the former one to you I wonder what I did with it, I suppose it will come out of some strange corner.

I am glad you and Mrs Daniel think well of the Chaplet. I only wish I could give my French ladies more French grace. I have about four chapters more written but not re written, and ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan, The books came last night all right - many thanks. There are some touches to be put to the Dove in the Eagle’s Nest for which I had better have the proof sheets. Indeed I think that printers are very apt to make quite gratuitous mistakes in working from what is in type.

I am told that the Latin word on Ebbo’s tomb is wrong, and ought to be Demum, indeed I ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan I am sorry that Dr Vaughan cannot undertake to give us his name. I wish indeed that the Archbishop of Dublin could, but if it is in vain to fly so high, what do you think of Dean Alford? I do not know him personally, nor would his name give the same complete confidence to the High Church as those before mentioned, but it might be the best attainable.

I had only thought ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I have been slow in answering you, but the fact is that I have been rather knocked down by a bad cold, and reduced to little more energy than is necessary to look over the sheets of the Dove. Indeed I am told to do as little as possible just now, and therefore I think I must lay aside that which I have hardly taken up the Sunday Library superintendence. I am sure ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I am in rather a fitter condition for thinking than I was in when I wrote my last note, being really under the necessity of getting the subject off my mind, as a bad attack of influenza set it haunting me. Now I am all right again only still obliged to do little, and to look forward to a holiday in Devonshire in May. Meantime I still feel strongly that I could not ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, Thanks. A parcel sent to me on Friday directed not to Winchester, but to Bishopstoke Station would be nearly sure to come in time, but we often have delays at Winchester. I am sending the revise of the preface today.

I will write about the other copies - but I have not time to write out the addresses at this moment. I rather regret the view of Ulm. General illustrating of the whole set ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan Our start from home is fixed for the 30th of this month. I suppose there is no chance of my getting any copies of the Dove before I start. I was obliged to delay further by having a revise of the preface where the printers had contrived to make a good many gratuitous mistakes. I never knew Messrs Clay so long printing anything. If there is no chance of your sending me a ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I enclose the list of the other copies of the Dove to be sent out besides my own dozen. Our day of departure is still fixed for Monday, but it is very likely to be put off till Friday. I suppose you naturally send copies of my books to the Guardian but it is odd how it has ceased to notice them.

If Miss Keary’s new book is finished at the same time, I ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I have now had time to think over the Book of Heroes, and have been making out a list of those whom I think worthy of the name.

But two or three difficulties occur to me.

In the first place is not the name too much like Mr Kingsley’s mythological book? People could never be expected to keep 'the Heroes' and the Book of the Heroes distinct in their minds. I think if I had ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik Please send me a copy of the Dove in the Eagle’s Nest.

I have got some of the books I wanted for my article from a school inspector, but I am afraid my ideas are not much more definite than when I saw you as to what would be likely to be of use - as I fear there is no book on English education analogous to Mr Arnold’s on German and I ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik

Thanks for the last set of my books, and for the Kingsley’s whereof we have been going through a course.

If I might have the payment for the first edition of Beechcroft at Rockstone I should be glad.

I suppose the last volume of Cameos is waiting for its index, but I hope it will be out before the season is over.

The Reputed Changeling is a much better thing I hope than the Rockstone ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik I shall be very happy to have the Little Duke and the Dove in the Eagle’s Nest manipulated for schools. I should think there would be little to do to the Little Duke as it was written for children. I should have thought the Lances of Lynwood more suitable than the Dove as being on English history.

I know the Eversley country is full of beauty, I once drove through it. I believe there ... continue reading

My dear C C I am glad there are some signs of life or of decay more properly of poor A D I- ! I do think there are more and more signs that a 6d phoenix would be welcomed.

I find the booksellers make all sorts of excuses for not having got it – The Authors Soc want to see my agreement before advising me. I could not find it easily before I ... continue reading

My dear C C Thank you for Crispin I was glad of him for we are feeding Alethea with light literature, she having broken down, with nothing the matter but a course of overwork after the influenza- first the children’s measles, then going to Holmwood to lodgings with the children, no nursery maid, and the lady nurse not looking after her, or doing nursery maid’s work and then a good deal to do at ... continue reading

Dear Mrs Drew, I am almost certain that the Little Duke and the Lances of Lynwood are published in chapter form for school children’s reading and our schoolmistress told us she had seen Kenneth advertised as abridged for School reading - I know Arnold wrote to me for permission and I told him he might use it, if he could arrange with Parker of Oxford, who published it when I knew nothing of arrangements. Macmillan has ... continue reading

My dear C C Your paper on Novels is excellent, I only got it yesterday, as our paper boy is a blunderer. The three ladies are capital and the letting off the colourless novels without principles at all is quite true, and to the point. Miss Blackburne wrote me an account of her Authors club, I should not like to have such a thing to manage. Miss Cholmondely is the head I ... continue reading