My dear Miss Smith,

It is a pleasure to have such a letter so answered, after feeling quite uncomfortable to have sent it off. Now I think I must copy off what a very able friend of mine says of the reading of Aggesden, apropos to the Saturday ‘I think that they (the SR) admire Aggesden & in fact it seems to me as little to design a moral as a plot.I should say there was ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith,

Thanks for the continuation, some of which we like very much, but I have a good deal to say about it, which is all the easier to do, as you tell me you were thinking of making some alterations in the re writing. First - to begin with what struck us in its order. Grandpapa’s account of his own youth is a little dull and I do not think his history of ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith, Many thanks for your kind answer, I think these ladies’ biographies will be very nice work to do together, and I believe that to look into real life minutely is the best school for one’s own mind or for fiction. If I write nothing but fiction for some time, I begin to get stupid, and to feel rather as if it had been a long meal of sweets - then history is ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith I did not write yesterday as I had to go to Winchester, and besides my sister in law had not quite finished reading the M S. The part about Horace’s marriage I do like, and the softening, but I am very sorry you adhere to the early part - especially his father’s repeated wishes for his death. If you could only hear the horror of my mother and my sister in law ... continue reading

Dear Canon Warburton I will send £1 for dear Bishop Harold Browne’s memorial but I am away now from cheque books. I go home on Saturday however having partly come to hear the history of the wonderful surprises of Aug 11th with which the Moberly’s had much to do.

Mrs Wordsworth is very cheerful, I hope to see her this afternoon

Yours very truly C M Yonge