My dear Miss Smith,

I have been so much taken up that I could not answer your letter sooner, and thank you for the way you have taken it. I am amused at the ordeal you are undergoing. I never met with anything like it, except once, when going with a cousin to luncheon with a connection of hers, she was addressed with ‘Anne, why could you have lent us Abbeychurch. Those games! And that mother!’ ... continue reading

My dear Anne

Thanks for your letter, and Mamma’s thanks for Mary’s. I am very glad indeed that you like Amy Herbert though I was sure you would enjoy it, her brother comes here today and I am sure he will be glad to hear of its being such an amusement to aunt Yonge. I am curious to know what you say about certain things I have heard objected to Some people especially ... 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

My dear Miss Christie

I had just been thinking of you, being reminded of your work by the review of Mrs. Ritchie's book, one which carries one along with it entirely, though I am not sure that her power is not greater in sketches of character in real life than in the construction of stories. Indeed she is too true to nature to satisfy one always with poetical justice, which, after all, one does ... continue reading