My dear Fanny

Mrs Selwyn comes on Thursday, the Bishop on Saturday. It will be a very thing if you do go down to enliven Mrs Selwyn on Friday for it has so turned out that this week is the only one when I can go down to see my poor dear old May, so I am going down there from Tuesday till Friday evening or Saturday morning I am not sure which. I am ... continue reading

My dear Mary We had two plants of purple periwinkle once in the old shrubbery part of the garden. It disappeared, and I tried to introduce it here from Dogmersfield, where there was plenty, but it did not live. Tell Jenny the bar is a line or stripe going horizontally all across the shield [diagram] The wreath is supposed to be the folds or fastening on the top of the helmet on which ... continue reading

My dear Anne It is a very long time since I have had such a nice long letter from you. I think the great Corfu news has given you a spur. It did take me very much by surprise though certainly if I had been asked to guess which of the Colbornes was going to be married, I should have said Jane, and you know she is at an age when two years of ... continue reading

My dear Mr Coleridge I am very much obliged to you for so kindly undertaking the enquiry at Goslings which must be the preliminary to any undertaking in the cause of the Bells. I would not however have given you the trouble of reading my thanks had I not been charged with a message to you from Mrs Keble She obtained a promise from Mrs Selwyn when in England that little John might ... continue reading

My dear Fanny,

I thought it might be more comfortable to you not to hear from me till the great stress of letters was over at first, and so that I would wait to write till I could send the precious letters. We took our turn the last, and so read them upon Friday, the very day one would have chosen above all others for it, the girding to the battle in that calm and self-devoted ... continue reading

My dear Cousin,

I do not like to leave New Zealand without sending a line to you. We sail probably in a week or two for Melanesia, and I hope to make a long voyage among many islands, leaving Revs. Pritt, Kerr, and Dudley, some in one place and some in another (including native teachers), visiting them frequently, so as to remove them, if rendered desirable by fever, ague, or other causes.

You know my feeling about ... continue reading

My dear Fanny,

Your letter came to me safely yesterday, and very glad I am of the prospect it holds out. I wrote to Mr Raikes at once letting him [know] that it was just what I should like, but that he had better send it to me when I get home which I do not think will be till the end of October. I find it so very difficult to get a MS read away ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I sent the drawing by the train yesterday. It was very dull of me not to have seen that it was a drawing. Our only other criticism is that a touch or two might make the little Duke’s limbs more child like.

As a matter of fact I believe the Normans did not wear beards, but I only found this out long after the book was out, so book and beard must both stand ... continue reading

My dear Fanny Yes, I think it is an excellent little paper and shews a good deal more knowledge of Sir Tristrem than I have, inasmuch as I have never got up Modern poems, and it is a good while since I poked in the ancient[.] I have a curious old Italian one printed in Italics called La Tavola Rotonda and with a good deal about Sir Tristram in it - which was bought ... continue reading

My dear Cobweb, You have been very ill used, but first Fanny Patteson was here, and I was idle, and since that I have not been well and have been more idle. The Acrostic is capital – I always like those that are all quotation- and I am very glad to see the composers going on, this last is a very entertaining piece

Pray excuse my great stupidity your affectionate Mother Goose

My dear Cousin, I write a line at once in reply to a letter of January 29, for I see that a great sorrow is hanging over you, is perhaps already fallen on you, and I would fain say my word of sympathy, possibly of comfort.

One, perhaps, of the great blessings that a person in my position enjoys is that he must perforce see through the present gloom occasioned by loss of present companionship on to ... continue reading

My dear Mrs. Moberly, Only think of Mr. Butler’s being so kind as to take me to Fairford yesterday - 18 miles, with his brisk black pony. And there with the beautiful sunshine we saw everything to the greatest advantage. The colouring of the memorable windows is much what the east window of the Cathedral was before it was cleaned and spoilt; the same rich dusky blue and red. But these grand colours were as charily ... 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 Cousin, One line to you to-day of Christmas feelings and blessings. Indeed, you are daily in my thoughts and prayers. You would have rejoiced could you have seen us last Sunday or this morning at 7 A.M. Our fourteen Melanesian Communicants so reverent, and (apparently) earnest. On Sunday I ordained Mr. Palmer Priest, Mr. Atkin and Mr. Brooke Deacons.

The service was a solemn one, in the Norfolk Island Church, the people joining heartily in ... continue reading

My dear C C Do you want Campbell’s Highland tales? I dont think there is anything bearing on Arthur in them he was quite Cymric not Gaelic. I sent the two Mags for young yesterday. Shall I write notices of SPCK’s books? They are not a good lot thus far as I have read, and there are two by Miss E Finnimore, the Postwoman and Uncle Isaac’s will that I am ... continue reading

My dear C C Poor dear Sophy, she has been a heavy weight on many minds from the time of Pena’s death, in a remarkable way considering the clever, able woman she was. I heard of her release, for such it was from Mary Yonge who wanted much, as well as Charlotte to come to the funeral, but happily the two witheld each other, in the fogs and the rain and the wet grass, ... continue reading

My dear C C I am glad of the 26th but I thought GFS stuck to the 24th & 29th. However it is all the better for me and the roses will be in their glory. The snow balls and may will be gone but no doubt you have them where you are. I wonder if Fanny Patteson will turn up any time. I throught she had, when Edith announced Miss ... 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 Christabel

I think if you told Warne that you had had an offer from Smith and Elder he would be sure to take your story. The stupid man has just refused Florence Wilford’s dominie and ought to be scarified. I shall have Joanna and Fanny Patteson with me on the 20th, and it is also the time of one of the lectures, so it will depend on a good many things ... continue reading

My dear Lady Salisbury,

It is very kind in you to ask me, but I have again to say that it is a time when I am engaged. I hope have [sic] Fanny Patteson with me that week, for a little while in her wanderings. I am afraid the life that those two sisters lead has become very sad.

with many thanks and regrets yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Christabel

This is all the writing paper I have, being ‘en clôture’, with a pupil teacher, a candidate- and three senior scholars – whom I have to superintend, as Mr Brock is called off to preach at Andover. It must be rather a relief, for his son and heir squalls incessantly day and night, and Gabrielle resents being a dowager at less than 13 months. Well- I was not sure about ... continue reading

How little I thought when I met dear Joanna Patteson in your drawing-room that it was the last time I should see her! Fanny Patteson had come back, and is sure Joan knew and was thinking for others to the last. . . . I hope you are profiting by the splendid summer weather. I never knew a year of sweeter smells: the sheets of wild honeysuckle ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I do not know what advice to give but that I wish they would take GFS, though I know I would not the authorities are so troublesome. How stupid about the Jubilee address sacrificing the reality of the Signature to the tidiness of the sheets. I think as someone said that the GFS is like the Church in flourishing in spite of the drawbacks of its supporters!

As to your questions, ... 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