My dear Miss Smith

I have kept your French journal a terrible time, and I am sorry to say I cannot get it in after all. It is rather too much trodden ground, and even you cannot make it new enough. I think you will soon get a huge piece of the Banks of the Thorne to finish them with the year if possible, and then we begin on our new principles. I hope the enclosed ... continue reading

My dear Henrietta

You have a very nice set of questions this time and I think the best to choose among them will be the distinguished Christian characters of Milan, and the monuments, but I think you should call them sepulchral monuments, as I suppose you mean only those that mark the actual place of the remains - as I imagine you don’t wish to include the Monument par excellence. I think you may allot four ... continue reading

My dear Florence,

Many thanks to you and your friend for your kindness about the pantomime. I am sorry however to say that I do not think it will quite do. I suppose it is the sort of thing to be done not so much by a regular narrative of the scenes as by some clever sketch such as perhaps takes an older hand. I hope it will not be a disappointment, but I think from ... continue reading

My dear Miss Peard, There is a part of it in which I think perhaps you would be so kind as to help. We are trying to bring in accounts of that troublesome contemporary time of the history of each country, that have not got into books so as to enable ‘our readers’ to know what is going on. Now Mr. Church has done Greece, Poland is in good hands, and Miss Roberts, I believe, does ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan,

There is one more copy of the Trial that I should like to have sent to the Press - i.e., to Events of the Month, Mozley’s, 6 Paternoster Row - it is a sort of school room Athenaeum which I wish to help forward

Thanks for your note. I hope nothing will prevent my meeting Mrs D Macmillan and I shall be glad to talk over your scheme, and see if it comes within ... 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

My dear Miss Yonge I have given our printer orders to go on with the 'Clever Woman'. I hope you will receive proofs at once & have a rapid supply. It will make some such work as 'The Trial,' as you wish.

I have corresponded with a friend of yours about 'Events of the Month.' I think the idea admirable the want is a crying one. But it should be [illegible] and well carried out. I hardly ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge Will you kindly send back the book by Weinhold. It is for Miss Otté who is going to do a history of North Europe. Miss Keary also has been at work on the same region.

I meant to have dropped you a note tell [sic] you why I sent you Duncans book which I stumbled on in an old book-shop, where after an old habit I was prowling about. I thought this will ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, Otterbourn was turned upside down yesterday by a grand wedding, so that I could accomplish nothing but sending off the book without writing.

I am much obliged by your proposal about the Clever Woman, and shall be well satisfied with the terms you propose, - and very glad not to have the stereotyping taken out of the £200. It strikes me that there ought to be another sheet in the first volume; as there ... continue reading

Dear Sir, Mr Macmillan asks me to answer to you the lady’s enquiry about the Strayed Leaves, which are strayed indeed!

The fact was that I wrote a sort of conclusion to Heartsease, which was called Last Heartsease leaves. It was not worth publishing, but it was printed for a bazaar some years ago, and I have never heard the last of it. I put it at last into the last number of Events of the Month, ... continue reading

My dear Arthur Arianwen means silver lady. She was a Welsh saint and the name has never quite died out in Wales, so I suppose the girl has Welsh belongings of some sort. Arian rhod a silver bow is the rain bow, who scares away spirits of wrath there is a charming bit about her in old Davis’s Celtic researches which nobody believes now. Alas! Macmillan took advice about the School room magazine ... continue reading