My dear Marianne- We were at Hursley two days ago, and Miss Best looked so melancholy about Mrs. Keble that we were quite frightened; however, she came home from a drive and seemed to me much better than when I saw her last. I wish Queen Emma was over, but there had been some cross purposes of letter-writing, and they were not sure when her four days were to be. I have just seen that Miss ... 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

Dear Mr Macmillan, I see Old Sir Douglas is living and thriving once more, so I write to ask whether you wish for the first instalment of the Chaplet of Pearls for October, or whether you wish to wait till the end of one of the present stories. I have written almost to the end, but it wants plenty of re-touching. I have had so much interruption that I /often could not go into work that ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan Please be so kind as to direct on this letter.

I am taking the Chaplet of Pearls to have a final reading by its greatest critics

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mr Macmillan, These Germans to whom I engaged that they should have early sheets and translate the Chaplet of Pearls now want me to have it copied for them at once, a thing I am not inclined for, but if you can at all tell me when it is likely to begin, I should know how to answer them. I am not in haste on my own account only I want to know what ... continue reading

Dear Miss Yonge . I am glad the Chaplet is going on. I do so want it in the Magazine, but the two stories now going . . . drag their slow length along. Poor Mrs Norton has been very ill, and had trouble in her family ever since we began. This month she writes from Rome that she cannot send anything. I fear her life has been & is very sad, and one has no heart ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, The Chaplet of Pearls is done, and I shall send it by train tomorrow, being glad to get it out of the house, as it entices me into touching it up when I ought to be doing other things. I am afraid you will think that though it is not a story without an end, yet the end is very far away - but it would not be shorter, and judging by the ... continue reading

Dear Miss Yonge [illegible] the Chaplet duly arrived. The minimal changes you propose seem to me quite sufficient. Benson will do very well. He was in my young days a popular gentleman on the stage - at least in London which was my only way of hearing about such things.

I will write you about the other matter in a day or to. St John’s seems to me very similar to the earlier one. I had an ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge I have the pleasure of sending you a statement of publishing doings for the past year, which I am glad to see leaves a larger balance in your favour than we have yet had to pay you. May it go on increasing! This we cannot quite hope as there have been no balances of reprint against you at all this year.

Mr Masson who is much pleased with your story, thinks the title ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I am getting well again, and gone to work again. Clement of Alexandria is the first authority for the robber story, but Eusebius takes it from him. I have a queer old translation of Eusebius, Socrates and Co - from which I really did expand the account, and so I think I had better leave Eusebius, as it looks less as if it all came out of Smith’s dictionary as in fact much ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik I am very happy to agree to this arrangement and thank you for providing the early sheets. Is it not however Holland that is concerned and not Denmark?

I am in a difficulty of my own making. I signed an agreement in the spring with one Mr Hugo Borges that he should have the early sheets of the Chaplet of Pearls to translate for a Roman Cronik as he calls it, which he and ... continue reading

Dear Miss Yonge, I was from home when your note about Index & Miss Sewell’s suggestion of a chronological table came to hand. But I have not been neglecting the suggestion. We are having a set of proofs made & shall put them into the hands of a competent person and submit the proofs to you.

With regard to announcing volume 3 [Next few lines illegible] the printers want something to do [illegible] and long and ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik I send the lacking Cameo. I have found things needing correction in three sheets of the Chaplet of Pearls, and I am searching for a sentence that I know was spoilt for want of a not - but the whereabouts of which I can in no wise as yet discover. If I do not find it before tomorrow’s post, I shall send the sheets to you which I have corrected for you to ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan, The mistakes about Walsingham & Sidney had perhaps better be mentioned in the preface to disarm the critics, and that unlucky Amen must be made an erratum it is so ridiculous in its present position.

Would you notify this to Clay, as I do not know the page.

What do you say to the story of Indian Life I sent you? If you cannot do any thing with it, please write to me before ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan The enclosed rather puzzles me, for I thought it was settled that sheets of the Chaplet of Pearls were to be forwarded to Mr Franke as they were ready for the Magazine?

Will you kindly see if this has been done?

Please send me back Wooed and Won. I must try what I can do with it.

Are you reprinting Kingsley’s Heroes. We tried for both them and Miss Keary’s heroes of Asgard for my ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, Many thanks, it is very agreeable to get anything out of America. I have a story of the time of Henry V and James I of Scotland - about half out in the Monthly Packet, and all written. I was thinking of proposing it to you for Christmas when it will be finished in the Monthly Packet. Might not some arrangement be made about it with Scribner. I could either send them the ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan I think I should enjoy editing a Globe edition of children’s books, and am much obliged to you for the proposal. I suppose the question is how many really good ones have exhausted their copy right.

Perhaps Philip Quarl could begin the series, it is really Defoe’s but I doubt if anyone has read it.

I send 9 chapters of the Lion. One object is to make people think of that St Katharine’s charity, ... continue reading

My dear Mr Freeman If the Scotsman is prunable, it will be a great relief to Miss Roberts and myself. If we do it at all it will be on the Cameo plan, with a table of contemporary Princes of the Empire at the head of each section. To divide by Emperors’ reigns any time between Frederick II and Maximilian would bring one to the verge of distraction. But I suspect our plan would make us ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik

There is a new volume of Cameos just ready to come out, ending at Queen Elizabeth’s death. I suppose it must be called ‘Wars of the Reformation’ I do not like the term Wars of Religion.

I am also finishing off Stray Pearls, which will be completed in the Monthly Packet in June, in 32 or 33 chapters - so I suppose it may come out about that time.

It is a sort of continuation ... 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

My dear Lottie I put off writing till the 19th was over, for it really was a very interesting day, though I little knew beforehand all they were going to make of it. About £1800 was collected for the scholarship, and this was presented, with a beautifully illuminated address, by the Bishop in the High School, making a wonderful speech about having read the Little Duke when he was a small boy, and all that ... continue reading

My dear Ellie- Thank you for your loving little note. Did you see in the Hants Chronicle a little bit of what I said after the speeches, of the Bishop of Guildford and Mr. Warburton? I could not help, when they said I had made clergy and good men seem real, almost murmuring that my good men were not ideals, but I had really known their equals (and superiors) in reality. Mr. Warburton was ... continue reading

Dear Miss Faithfull I am sorry you had such an ungrateful return for your kindness but I have not yet proceeded into the outer air, and am only picking up the neglected tangles that were left.

I am very much obliged for the photographs. Little Eustacie as ever comes out the best

Yours sincerely C M Yonge