My dear Miss Bourne,

In the first place you will be glad to hear that it was a very nice quiet Sunday & Monday at the Nest. Mrs Dyson cheered by the return of “her son,” and both glad of finding that his family really consider it a boon that they should stay and take care of him while their house is building at Crookham. I hope that Mr Keble’s suggestion will take effect, and the ... continue reading

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

My dear Anne- Thanks for your note in your haste. Of course we each meant 5s., I only wish it was more, though I don’t know that I should be writing to-day to say so if I did not want to tell you of what our hearts are so full of, namely, Mr. Keble’s state. He had seemed well and cheerful through all the fluctuations of her state, and had written a comfortable note to [[person:930]Miss ... continue reading

My dear Anne As we fully expected, the holy and blessed spirit went to its rest at one o’clock on Thursday morning; the other gentle spirit is placidly waiting her call to be with him. She slept quietly after having given thanks after it was over, but was much overcome on wakening, and this is the last we know of her. I should feel comforted to know the rest had come, which cannot be far off ... continue reading

My dear Anne Most peaceful, most gentle has the day been. The Psalms suited perfectly, and while we said ‘In His pleasure is Life,’ a butterfly flew about in the sunshine in church. I had a short talk with the Bishop of Brechin and told him your abode, and he hopes to come and see you about the end of the week. You had not sent me the Hursley letter about our dear Louisa. When you ... continue reading

We had a wonderful visit yesterday from an utterly unknown little American girl of fourteen or fifteen, who bobbed into the room, rushed up to me, shook hands, ‘Miss Yonge, I’ve come to thank you for your books, I’m an American.’ Papa and mamma were, it appears, seeing the church, and were going round by Hursley back to Winchester. It was odd to be thanked by a little bolt upright mite, ... continue reading

My dear Florence The constituent parts of the New Barnacle don’t come in fast, but I know there are a few more to come for vol. xvii. If enough do come in to be worth binding, I think I must leave it in your charge. I send you what I have already come in for it, and please keep it to see whether there comes enough in addition to use. If there does, I will write ... continue reading

My dear Marianne To write to you seems matter of necessity, though time does not seem to be found anywhere in the interval of church-going and eating. The Consecration day you heard about, and on the next, after a tolerably quiet day, when we went to luncheon with Mrs. Scroffs, the dear people came. They had fraternised with Mr. Wilson by the way, and he came in the fly with the ladies, while the vigorous Primate ... continue reading

My dear Duke Thank you for your very kind letter, which has been a great pleasure to me and will be so to think of. Though every one of our friends is so kind one’s own people that all one’s life is mixed up with are so much more to one. I think that the expectation of the Consecration must have been exciting Mamma more than we knew for weeks before, she so often fancied ... continue reading

My dear Marianne Things have gone on well and quietly; I only wonder what I am that I seem to have no breakdown in me, but cannot help feeling for ever that the ‘Ephphatha is sung’when I think of the frowning look with which she would try to make us understand her, and that struggle to say words of praise, ‘glorify’ so often coming. You cannot think how her work, the illuminated ‘Holy, Holy, Holy,’ and ... continue reading

My dear Caroline It did indeed seem to be bringing sorrow upon sorrow when that account came of your dear father, and one recollected all that he was to us in 1854, and indeed ever since, and the accounts since have been a great cheer. It is strange that scarcely any of our own specially near and dear friends who were round us fourteen years ago were either left or at hand, Dr. Moberly even out ... continue reading

My dear Mr. Butler Thanks. I wish I felt more worthy of being an Exterior Sister, but I am thankful to be joined to what is good, though I do not think you would care to have me if you knew how I ‘shrink when hard service must be done,’ and what a spoilt child I have been ever since I grew up, very nearly useless in anything practical. But I will constantly use the prayer, ... continue reading

My dear Mary Thank you so much for your long letter and history of all your doings. I am sure if usefulness makes a happy life this ought to be one, and you must have much of kindness and of the sense of a living Church round you to fill you with energy. I do not know whether you have ever felt a sort of sense of the absence of the whole salt of life in ... continue reading

My dear Marianne- Here I am in the heat of the weather, with a copse before my eyes where the "grey blossoms twinkle" more like “a bright veering cloud" than I ever saw anything do before, but they are the silver buttons on the withies. Maria had a talk with Mr. Siddon, who expressed the most unqualified delighted approval of the book, but in general I think people regret that it is more the history of ... continue reading

My dear Marianne Here we are, after having, I think, done very well on our journey. We met Miss Martin on board the steamer. I forget whether I told you that she had begged to come at the same time for the benefit of our escort, and though we had rather have been alone, she was very helpful and pleasant. She is the editor of the Sunday Library, which is the way we fell in with ... continue reading

My dear Marianne- The day went in this way yesterday---towards eleven o’clock there was a bell, and we all went down and wandered in the garden till everybody was assembled, then we went to M. Guizot’s study and had prayers, he reading a chapter of St. Matthew, and Mme. de Witt making a short prayer of it, ending with the Lord’s Prayer. Then came the post and breakfast, upon rissoles, fried potatoes, fruit and vin ordinaire, ... continue reading

My dear Marianne- Yesterday was so rainy that there really is very little to say about it. The breakfast was enlivened by our being told that Madame Adelaide always had a set of bonbons placed beside the seat of each member of her brother’s cabinet whenever they met, and that they were of a superior quality or not according as to whether she liked the ministry or not. M. Guizot said he had the experience of ... continue reading

My dear Marianne- This last day will be a very quiet one, for M. de Witt is gone to a horse-fair at Falaise, and Julian, Frances and Miss Martin are gone with him, starting at eight this morning, and coming home at eleven at night; unluckily I could not go, and Mme. de Witt caught a bad cold yesterday and I fear will not be good for much to-day. Caen had to be given up because ... continue reading

My dear Marianne-

Here is our last morning here, at least so I hope, for I ended the day yesterday by a collapse, and instead of spending the evening with M. Guizot, had to lie on my back in my room all the evening. However, I am much mended, and hope to be in thorough repair before we start at 12 o’clock. Madame de Witt’s cold was very bad yesterday and she only came out at ... continue reading

My dearest Mary Thank you so much for that kind letter, and for your message this morning. But I do find that I am not fit to come, I am so much knocked up to-day, having before not quite recovered from the effects of hot journeys and strange food. And I would not give you the care and trouble of a breakdown just now.

How are you all passing through this Sunday; I seem to have seen ... continue reading

My dear Mary My thoughts have verily been with you, waking and going to bed, and at that twelve o’clock, when I could see the place and almost hear the bell and think of you all. It is a great comfort to hear of Uncle Yonge’s peace and resignation, and to read his letters so thoroughly himself in all ways. I am always thinking of those words over James’s and Charles’s tablet, and how blessed and ... continue reading

My dear Florence Thank you for your kind note; I am glad you are at St. Cross again. I will try to come and see you as soon as I can. My dear cousin Anne had not been strong for many years, but was quite in her usual health till forty-eight hours before the end. Then as she was going upstairs at night a dreadful attack in the head came on, just what several of the ... continue reading

My dear Marianne Well, we have our Bishop, and I feel we really have. I never saw a Bishop in our throne, and I never saw the Cathedral like what it was to-day. I really feel some parts of the day were among the best delights of my life. To see that dear old Cathedral which in some respects is one of the things I love above all, doing as it ought to do, and ringing ... continue reading

My dear Sir William- I hope it is not very presumptuous to follow my impulse of not exactly congratulating you, but expressing my great pleasure in the award of this mark of honour to you, coming, it seems to me, in an especially gratifying manner, as being so entirely free from all connection with party and at a time when I suppose it cannot be as a matter of course, but as showing how high real ... continue reading

My dear Mr. Butler I have two kind letters to thank you for, first about the T and secondly about the war - I wish the authority for the former was more direct and conclusive, it is so very beautiful.

The Monthly Packet of October will be quite German enough to please you, having the journal of a lady at Homburg and a translation by Miss Sewell of 'Der Wacht am Rhein', but I confess that I ... continue reading

My dearest Fanny, Somehow I did not feel as if I could write to you before I heard from May how you and Joan were, and till I had in a measure realised the crush to one's feelings on the one side, and the glorious crown upon the other.

There was something in the set-apart life, and the freedom from all our common heats and strifes and turmoils that seemed to remove him into the world ... continue reading

My dear Marianne I have had a beautiful letter from Lady Martin, which I think you must see as well as Mrs. Moberly's equally beautiful comment on it. The palm and the white garment and the crystal sea seem to come like music back in answer to the 'Who knows' in the Lyra Innocentium! I have been living in it a great deal with the Wilsons who were at the Park, their hearts ... continue reading

My dear Sir William- Your letter has come on to me here. I came on Monday to be instructed respecting Bishop Patteson's life, which I am to try to draw up from the very full materials that his family and Bishop Selwyn can provide. I hope to return on Saturday.

Thank you for letting me see Mr. Faithfull's decision; I think he is wise to give his name, and so obtain the subscriptions of all his friends. ... continue reading

My dear Sir William Would you be so kind as to look at page 9 of the 'Gleanings' at the beginning of the Musings on the Christian Year, and tell me whether you have any recollection of telling Mr. Keble anything about your opinion of King Charles's truth?

There is a new edition called for, and Miss Dyson wants me to take it out. Her letter coming while I was at Salisbury, I asked whether it ... continue reading

My dear Marianne, It seems a long time since I have written - in fact Miss Wordsworth hardly let me do anything for talking. I have not taken to a person so much for a great while past; she is so good and so sensible, and, what I was far from expecting, so funny, and her fervent love and devotion to her father are so very charming, and her last evening she made such ... continue reading

My dear Marianne

I heard this morning that good old Mr. Gibbs is gone - on Friday night - his flowers fresh in our church. We had a very successful day, and no doubt Amélie has told you about it, the Confirmation afterwards, thirty-five of our children, the girls led off by Helen, Amy, and Gerty and six of the school-girls with such sweet solemn faces, and a Cranbury man who had been baptized on ... continue reading

My dear Annie-

I believe that the fact of having the renewal of the baptismal vow united in our branch of the Church with Confirmation has very much tended to confuse people's minds as to what it really is.

A Sacrament it surely is in the sense, as you say, that it is an outward sign of an inward grace, and there is no reasonable doubt that it is Apostolic. The laying on of hands by St. ... continue reading

My dear Lizzie

Beatrice Morshead wrote to me on Saturday, so that I had her letter at the same time as yours. I had heard from Miss Bourne the day before this change. Beatrice's letter seemed as if there was a little more revival, and it seems now to be possible that there may be more vitality even now than we thought. But one cannot wish for aught but rest. There was something ... continue reading

My dear Cyril

Thank you for your story. Here is one for you in return.

The Boy who rode on a Saddle of Mutton

There was a little boy who always got whatever he cried for. One day he was at dinner with his father and mother, there was a large piece of meat in a dish. He heard them call it a Saddle of mutton. ‘O’ said he ‘I must ride on ... continue reading

My dear Florence-

It is a very good story, but I wish it had not been about an election, for I have another election story which I cannot throw over. It is by my poor old friend Fanny Wilbraham, who is so nearly blind that it is a wonder she has written it at all, and it is really very good. It is the conduct of a Cheshire peasant the other day, but she has put ... continue reading

My dear Ellie-

I have just heard of that having happened which for years I have feared to recollect must come some day. I don't know how to dwell on it or how to think of it. I think what comes before me oftenest is selfishly the sorrow for not having seen more of him this last year, especially this spring.

There are some friends that one looks to like a sort of father, and he was ... continue reading

My dear John

Thank you for your curious extract about names. I have one this morning from an Italian newspaper sent by Mrs Church, which beats everything. I translate it for your behalf- ‘The celebrated English Authoress of the Era di Ratcliffe is dead. Her name was Jong but in recognition of her talents, the Queen Victoria made her a Viscountess. She married the English ambassador at Constantinople but has continued ... continue reading

My dear Florence

As next Tuesday is a Saint's day, perhaps I had better say that the boy would not find me at home, as the first Tuesday in every month there is a meeting of the High School committee. On all Thursday afternoons till Easter I have to be at the mother's meeting, and indeed we are so eaten up with preparing for the examinations that I can answer for no afternoons in February ... continue reading

My dear Lizzie

. . . I see in the paper the death of a third Sumner within a few months; I hope our Archdeacon won't be the next. His wife was a Heywood, and is very valuable. They have given up Alresford and come for good to the Close, and are very useful. Christabel Coleridge has been here. The Princesses give great satisfaction at Torquay, where they walk about ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Harrison Thank you so much for my God daughter’s photograph. Alas! I have been a very bad Godmother to her, never having a chance to come in her way, but I go so little from home and when I do, it is always to my own people in Devon.

I have not been to London even for three years! Unluckily I just missed Mrs Bland when she was staying with the Bakers at Winchester. ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik

I should like to find out how much the lady cares who urged me to write before answering. Whether I will go on with this personal history, and whether time is still important, for it was the hurry that oppressed me.

The copyright of Householders and Thoughts on Pictures is mine.

I quite see that all ought not to come too much together, but I do think Householders is worth the having soon, for children ... continue reading

My dear Lizzie-

. . . Yes, I saw the Spectator on Chantry House, but indeed I did not put in the ghost for the sake of variety or sensation, but to work out my own belief and theory. I could tell you things I quite believe that chime with it. One I must tell, not that it is a ghost probably, it is so curious. The poor people in the Torquay outskirts think a ... continue reading

My dear Lizzie

Thank you for your kind letter. This is the dear Mrs. Gibbs's burial day, and I have been prevented from keeping it properly by Mr. Brock suddenly knocking up this morning with neuralgia and sick headache. If it had only begun yesterday he would have got help on such a great Saint's day; but that is not to the purpose. We knew what was coming for nearly a month; ... continue reading

My dear Lizzie

Things are coming all right; Mary Coleridge will be ready for me on the 29th, so I shall have the week before for sights of the dear people.

Here am I writing letters instead of decorating, for I have got laid up with an attack of shingles; however, as it began on Sunday, though I did not know what it was, I hope it will soon finish off.

I wish someone (not a ... continue reading

My dear Lizzie-

. . . It is of no use to debate about W. E. G. You know even dear M. A. and I had to avoid the subject, so I am not likely to be more convinced now of anything but that he deceives himself most of all, and takes love of power and popularity and hatred of Conservatives for love of right.

I have the outline of a story for the Xmas ... continue reading

My dear Anne, Have you seen any more of Charles’s owl? The shells got home quite safe. I send you a carrier Trochus and Charles a waved whelk, Duke a fresh-water mussel and Jane a cyprea. I went to the theatre whilst I was at Oxford; it is a great large place shaped like a horse shoe; at the flat end sat all the musicians and singers on a stand raised on ... continue reading

One of the things I have to do for M. de Normanville is to write a story in French, and my story goes on for ever and ever . . . my poor little girls meet with all sorts of dangers.

My dear Anne, As Sir William Heathcote is coming here this evening I take this opportunity of writing to you, I hope, to thank you beforehand for the letter I am to expect on Saturday. I think your Coronation Festival must have been most splendid, especially the peacocks’ feathers. You must have wanted Duke to help you arrange it all, I think. I know he always used to be famous for arrangements. ... continue reading

At the Hall is a beautiful picture of King Charles the martyr, a full-length, and with the beautiful forehead we always see him drawn with.

My dear Driver I never expected Henrietta to produce such pretty fruits. I am delighted with it. I wish you would give Linny Sintram to read, and see what she would make of it. Ours are hearing it with great satisfaction. The Tree was very successful; the gentlemen would come to look on, which made the children very silent, but they were exceedingly happy. Mr. Wither cut down the fruit, and there was much fun, ... continue reading

My dear Driver Thank you for all your encouragement with regard to Henrietta; I assure you I mean to have my own way, and if the Churchman finds he has caught a Tartar, he must make the best of it. I am very angry with Sister’s Care, for it has done the very thing I wished not to have been done, that is to say, in one way I am glad of it, for I ... continue reading

My dear Driver I rather doubted about sending you Cyrus, because, as you will see, he does not stand alone, but is a chapter of general history and therefore is not very minute, nor has he been written more than once, so that you must excuse numerous deficiencies and please to let me have him again. To my shame be it spoken I have not read Clarendon; we ought to have read him aloud ... continue reading

My dear Driver The first thing I did when I opened your letter this morning was to laugh, it was so exactly what I had been thinking about before I was up, as far as regards Guy's character, for what I had been planning was to make the encounter with Martyn happen at Oxford, whither Martyn has volunteered to go to hunt up the supposed debts of Guy's. I mean Guy to have hazel eyes ... continue reading

Sir Guy Morville has just arrived at Hollywell, and Charles does not know whether to like him or not. I have got hard into the beginning now, but I believe some work at the Landmarks  will be very wholesome for him. You know his first confession of love was made at a time when all was going smoothly, and I should think the consciousness of the doom was not at ... continue reading

No. III. is in clover. I have had something of some sort almost every day lately, and am not at all afraid of the 60 pages.

. . . Sir Guy Morville considers himself much honoured by your invitation, and as much as there is or will be by that time of him shall attend you. It will be a real kindness to take him out of my reach, for he is such ... continue reading

My dear Marianne If the maids had not an evil habit of keeping the arrival of a parcel a secret for some hours, I should not have let the dear Guy go without note or comment, but we never heard of him till just as we were starting for Winchester, when I wrote his mother's name in the first that came out, and carried him off. I hope she has had him by this time, and ... continue reading

My dear Marianne Your letter was the pleasure of sympathy that I knew it would be. We have been going on what seems a long time, with a great deal of severe pain in the head, which gets better late in the afternoon, then he sits up, overtires himself, and makes it worse again. Yesterday mamma had one of her worst varieties of headache, as might have been expected, but it mended in the middle of ... continue reading

My trouble has come; he had a second attack and died at six to-night.

Mamma is too like Amy, excited with thankfulness. I dread what it will be; I don't think we half believe it yet.

You will write to me; perhaps I may write to-morrow, but I can't tell. We have Mr. and Mrs. Keble helping us to-night. Oh what will the waking be! So many of our Psalm superstitions have come true.

Your most affectionate C. ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Blackburn That you may see the earnest has begun I send you the beginning of Tom on inspection, but please let me have him again or I shall forget what articles of fairy furniture have been used up. I like the work very much, and where you see numbers put I mean to have notes, and quote my authorities, Drayton, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Geoffrey of Monmouth. In this way I think pretty bits ... continue reading

My dear Marianne . . . But all this time you have not heard how I had three walks between College and St. John's house arm-in-arm with the Bishop! Don't you call that preferment?

We went to the Cathedral with the troop of Moberlys, and I am glad my first sight of him was in his lawn sleeves. I never saw a face of which one would so much say it was inspired. ... continue reading

My dear Caroline I shall like very much to send a pound towards your window; shall I send it to you at once by a post-office order? I hope your diaper will be as beautiful as some of those patterns of the Cologne windows of which we used to have a great sheet, and I always longed to see in glass, thinking that they would be better than bad figures.

Miss Keble's illness was a very bad ... continue reading

My dear Caroline I find mamma is answering your questions and leaving me to tell you what I know you will wish to hear about our loss. I do so wish you could have seen our dear little William, with his large dark, soft eyes, and his merry smile, he was such an unusually intelligent and pretty creature, I suppose too much so, as if marked from the first for a brighter home. Somehow I ... continue reading

Dear Miss Yonge Thanks for your interesting letter, it will give pleasure to Mrs. Emery, Miss Kilner's great-niece.

That is very curious about the Lectures. It is strange that we found these books so fascinating when we were children; is it because the story of the development of the soul is the most interesting thing even to little children, and these books, spite of all their erroneous methods, dealt with nothing else? Besides, we ... continue reading

My dear Florence I am very glad to hear of you again, and I hope the touch of frost will not be felt at Bournemouth; it has spared all our flowers as yet. I waited to write because Christabel was coming to make up our plans for the new volume. We will try to put in 'Purification' poem for February, but I am afraid poems do not get much payment. I wish ... continue reading

My dear Helen Thank you for the £8, which I found safely on coming home from hearing the first day of the diocesan conference.

Poor old Graf, it is not every dog who is buried by the parish clerk, with me walking in solemn procession of one all down the walk behind. I am glad you were spared the catastrophe, and that mamma has Koko to divert her mind. I am afraid [[person:201]Mr. ... continue reading

My dear Frances We buried the poor old fellow with all honours. Charles wheeled down the barrow, I followed, and we put him where his predecessors are, coming on two of their coffins before we found the right place. Poor old fellow, he loved his own way, and it was well for all that he should not grown old.

My dear Helen Mr. Brock brought me in both the telegrams and was very kind. Of course what all knew must be sooner or later could not be a great shock, but all my letters were going with accounts of his having borne the journey so well. It is better for mamma and all of you to have had no lingering, and no associations for the new house. I hope she is keeping ... continue reading

Dear Mr. Awdry- I can quite believe that humble words of Mr. Keble might be misunderstood, misreported, and exaggerated, and if called on to defend every single line in the Christian Year, he might have spoken of it as a man, growing in grace, at sixty years old might speak of his utterances at thirty.

But I can distinctly declare that he never repented of the book as a whole, nor regretted its publication, and that it ... continue reading

My dear Lady Frederick I am afraid I cannot give you more than a week, and that the 6th must be the last possible day. I believe I am going to look over the MSS. with Mrs. Sumner and send them off on the 1st, but we can add your report at the end. I hope you are really recovered from the influenza. People are having it at Winchester, but rather slightly.

I always ... 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

My dearest Lizzie- We had found all your names among the 5200 in the wonderful book all bound with daisies down the back, which came as a great surprise, two Moberlys leaving it and Queen Margherita at the door, and then whisking off so that they were not recognised or followed up. However, I have had a few days with them in their home at Salisbury and heard all the ins and outs and how it ... continue reading

My dear Mary I send you the Melanesian paper; would you do as the Bishop asks, and send him your address and two stamps, and so get the paper regularly sent to you? Partridge sends me a terrible number, and now they are not to be gratis to subscribers. We have told them to send in their names to Bishop Selwyn; it is getting rid of a good deal of bother.

Moreover the [[other:52]Monthly ... continue reading

Dear Mr.Maddison How shall I thank you enough for writing to me much that I might never have known, though Miss Barnett promises to send me some of the letters she has had. Poor thing, the tower of strength is gone, and she has lived in and for those two so long that I cannot think that her frail body will stand such a shock. I am glad you told me that she does ... continue reading

My dear Mrs. Romanes- I have been reading the book before thanking you for it, and telling you how grateful I am for being allowed to see something of so beautiful a character. Especially I had never understood that religious principles and aspirations had been a thing of early days, so that it was truly ‘our Childhood's Star again arising’ after an eclipse which had not been of the spirit and love of right and ... continue reading

Dear Sir- I must write and thank you, and ask you to thank the writer of the very kind and appreciative notice of my books.

The balance, of praise and detection of weakness (though most kindly letting the former preponderate) is just what I have wished to see. I think that what pleases me best is the full recognition that the religious and conscientious men of the stories had their actual counterparts, and though no doubt needing ... 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 Emma I may write a Sunday letter to say how much it has been to me to read such a record of the good old days of Nest, and all the wonderful ‘go’ there was at Wantage. It was like the sparkling stream, and the clear, still, reflecting pool, both equally pure, but one full of ripples, broken but bright, and the other silent and meditative. And what a development! Certainly ... continue reading

. . . But I must tell you of something that has given me the greatest pleasure. About two years ago a lady belonging to the Mission at Calcutta wrote to me that a Hindu student had been so much impressed with the Pillars of the House as to accept Christianity, and that he was going to be baptized. So I sent out one of those illuminated cards that are given at baptisms (Henry Bowles ... continue reading

My dearest Marianne- Raby will have told you that my dear home companion's long patience has ended.

She was really dying ever since last evening, though the end did not come till one o'clock to-day, holding my hand, and asking Henry's prayers all the time till consciousness was gone, not many minutes before the end. I do not think in the relief I feel the difference it will make to me.

Your strawberries were really welcome to me---one ... 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

Dearest Marianne- I have the sketch-book still (only it is at the bottom of some dusty hoards, which I have not time to irritate to-day) with all our party on Bishopstoke Hill. Dear Marianne, it is much to be thankful for to have a real friend of one's youth on into ‘boar hairs,’ and friends and household do all they can to make it a bright day. Emily Awdry comes for two days to-day. She will ... continue reading

I had not heard for a fortnight, and had just made up my mind to write to ask Raby whether you knew anything, and when I saw your writing I knew how it must be. This gradual, gentle sinking is the most merciful way of going one can think of, though I hope that there may not be the restlessness that ... continue reading

My dear Miss Mowbray- I am afraid I did not thank you or any one else for all your kindness to me. I had no notion of all that the function involved, and I fear I have never outgrown ungracious shyness, which I am often sorry for, and I am afraid stood in the way in the many introductions. But nothing could have been better managed or more gratifying than the whole, and I ... 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

My dear Ellie- Thank you for your letter. We have heard nothing more, and hardly look for anything, and indeed there had been only one letter from him since he joined Baden-Powell, but that was enough to leave us no doubt that it is himself. I am so glad he had that year at home after the Matabele War.

He was very much loved here. There was to have been a ‘Social Evening,’ but the people ... continue reading

My dear C C No, you did not send me a notice of Red Pottage I am thankful you did not for that and Canon Lias would have been enough to tear M in C to pieces. However he thinks too much fuss is made about the MS in the brother’s house. Do you remember Edna Lyall subscribing to Bradlaugh from Canon Crowfoot’s house at Lincoln

But I think people with Consciences ought to ... continue reading

My dear C C There is much to rejoice in in that SW line, poppies meandering streams and all, and Oliver was capable of a welcome. Tory disposed of three young mice yesterday (What would the Puritan have done to him?) I thought of sending them to the Eastleigh bazaar tomorrow, but they are still too young - Alethea is come home and had a hayfield party yes on Saturday Her ... continue reading

My dear C C Does not your paper want something more of practical application, not that I quite see how it is to be done. Maud and Lily are capitally described, but the upshot is that a nice girl does not like to be mixed up with them- also that mothers should be exhorted to keep girls nice – and mistresses to take care whom they take.

Would be possible to bring it more to a ... continue reading

My dear C C I shall be very glad to see you on the 7th or 8th, I trust you will find Helen here as her ship is due before the end of this week. She sailed on the 18th and was to take ten days –weather being good, and to look in at Cadiz and Lisbon on the way. She will be able to tell you about Ronda &c. You will find ... continue reading

My dear Lottie- How are you getting on ; I am afraid there is not much change any way and that your hands are full.

I believe Helen is somewhere either in the Bay of Biscay or the Chops of the Channel; she sailed on the 18th, and in a nice cabin with her goldfinches, and after to-morrow I may have a telegram any day to say she is in the Thames.

Christabel talks of coming on the ... continue reading

My dear Annie-

These are such deep, wide questions that one cannot answer them off-hand. The Three analogy goes much further in nature and in grace. For instance, three parts of ourselves: body, soul, spirit. Three primary colours: red, blue yellow. Three pioneers of the sun's rays: light, heat, actinism. Three kinds of life: angel, man, brute. Three animal orders: beast, bird, fish. Three natural kingdoms: animal, vegetable, mineral. Three orders of ministers: bishops, priests, deacons.

The ... continue reading

My dear Anna I am only just in time to catch the post and thank you very much for the photographs. The outside of the house is charming, and Annie Moberly is venturing to ask if she might have one of them and of the group. She and Miss Price came out exactly like and she is like half her sisters. She would like them unmounted. I shall be very glad to see you when ... continue reading

My dear Annie- I can only be quite sure that Mr. Keble never taught me at my Confirmation anything about Fasting Communion. When he first came monthly celebrations began here at mid-day the last Sunday in the month, his idea then being that he would come over and assist. So Hursley was fortnightly mid-day first and last Sundays; Ampfield began on the third. Then it was begun at Hursley early on the intermediate Sundays, and ... continue reading