My dear Mrs Mozley, I answer your kind letter at once, without waiting till after to-morrow because I have promised to write to many then. We did feel stunned indeed all the Good Friday though we had known the day before that there was nothing else to look for, and we were (and are) most thankful that he is spared the solitude that she so much dreaded for him, that she had always wished that she ... continue reading

And so, my dear Cousin, the blow has fallen upon you, and dear Mr. and Mrs. Keble have passed away to their eternal rest. I found letters at Norfolk Island on October 2, not my April letters, which will tell me most about him, but my May budget.

How very touching the account is which my Uncle John sends me of dear Mrs. Keble, so thankful that he was taken first, so desirous to go, yet ... continue reading

My dear Cousin, You know why I write to you on this day. The Communion of Saints becomes ever a more and more real thing to us as holy and saintly servants of God pass beyond the veil, as also we learn to know and love more and more our dear fellow-labourers and fellow-pilgrims still among us in the flesh.

Such a day as this brings, thanks be to God, many calm, peaceful memories with it. Of ... 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 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 Anne It is enough to frighten one to see all one’s words taken so seriously, not that I did not really mean them, but perhaps I spoke more freely from not thinking you would attach so much weight to what so young and so flyaway a person might say. However it is quite right to feel that words have weight. I think I must begin from henceforth to assure you that you ... 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

My Dear M. A. O that the sky of the Church was as clear as the sky above our heads, and how, as they always do, yesterday's Christian Year seemed to chime in with the thoughts that must sadden one even in this most glorious weather, as we thought last night when the full moon was shining so gloriously in the midst of the sky, and the elm-tree making such a beautiful shadow on the ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Blackburn I have bought myself a Grimm, and studied all the Thumbs that have come in my way, and have come to the conclusion that the way to make him pretty will be after all as you suggested, to begin with King Arthur. The unmitigated nursery legend with all the swallowing and the tricks is not poetical, and must have been vulgarized. So I will take what of Round table stories will suit, ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Blackburn Many thanks for your photograph which I am very glad to possess, as it is pleasant to have more than a visionary notion what one is writing to.

I cannot find any authority for Tom Thumb’s father being a miller, in one of your books he is a ploughman in the other a woodman, and in Grimm a peasant, so as he seemed to be quite well to do, with a cow ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith It is very odd to send the money in two orders, but when I sent on Saturday the Post Office or I contrived to make a blunder, and the Order arrived for less than your due, so I am afraid you must have the trouble of signing both of these. £1.19 is for the Royal Household, with many thanks, and I have ventured to add a pound for your district if ... continue reading

That visit was on the whole so delicious, and leaves such a sunny impression on my mind, that it is strange to remember the spots of yearning recollection and the great pang of going away. Not that I was not glad to get back . . .but when one looked back to the last time of parting in the full hope of being together the next year, and remembered that nine ... 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 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

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 Madam

I well remember the warm interest that Mr Keble took in your poem, indeed one sentence in the notice was his own. The illustrated edition to which you allude of the Christian Year, must I think be either one with some photographs or else one with illuminations both of which were got up with little or no sanction from Mr Keble

Parker of Oxford is the only publisher to whom you could apply, but ... continue reading