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

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 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

My dear Anne, You must not expect a very continuous letter from me as Mary Davys is here but I believe the best chance is to begin a long time beforehand to thank you for your charming long letter which we were delighted to see on coming back from school on Sunday. You said when you were here that we should sit in the drawing room gasping for a drop of water but last Sunday ... 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

My dear Anne I was just begun to think that it was quite time to hear from you, when your letter arrived this morning. I see I have begun on the wrong side of my paper but it is the black cat’s fault as she was scrambling on my lap and disturbing my ideas. We have been out all the morning having set out to Twyford to look at some books which are to ... 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 Anne Thank you for taking all my impertinence so kindly. I hope you will not be very angry with me for being highly delighted with Mary Coleridge’s prospects, and not even pitying Alethea so much as Cordelia Colborne, for you must remember that Mary will live very near home and the sisters may see each other every day of their lives, and for Mary’s youth, she is much older at twenty, than many people ... 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 Mary, My letters must seem to be very few & far between but sudden revolutions happen now & then, wh disorder my private arrangements, such as yesterday, when I was just seated to write to Alethea & Uncl Wm proposed driving Char: & me to Southampton, & before we came back the visitors were arrived. You will see how much I enjoyed your very long letter presently when I tell you how pleasant ... continue reading

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 Anne How sorry I am to hear that Mary has a cold to pull her down just as she was getting better. I hope it will not last, but this is bad weather for shaking it off. It signifies rather more than my nose. I have been laughing much at the sensation that made two months after it had quite recovered. And after all it was not in consequence of ... continue reading

My dear Papa, I feel greatly obliged to you for writing so often. I fear your leisure will decrease rapidly now, that you are able to resume your out of door occupations, to say nothing of all the Confirmation Children, and also such an increase in the colony within doors. I hope you will not find yourself quite overmatched by the half dozen grandchildren, and obliged to retreat to the top of the House, ... continue reading

My dear Mary I could hardly help writing a note last night before I went to bed, it seemed so long to have known about Harvey without saying a word. I do not know whether I mentioned that we were to spend Saturday in a shopping expedition to Southampton & so no chance of writing then, but so it was. You will quite understand how little I mean the words to apply to herself ... 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 Anne I must write a word or two before Church. I do not think I dared to expect better than this, and I do hope that at least the suffering is not what it was the day before. It is the Cross at least, and she has been bearing it so in patience and meekness all her days that one thinks of her as one made meet. I am glad that ... continue reading

My dear Alice, I hope George is feeling the freshness of these nice cool days, and Mrs. Moberly is contented and happy without the babies, who by Mary and Edith's account must be very funny, especially Edward. What a pleasure it will be to see George at Winchester again, and to hear of all your doings, by which I hope ‘The Daisy Chain’ will profit, as it has a Commemoration in it. ‘Cleve Hall’ ... 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 Miss Bourne, Our difficulties are so far lessened that the married servant I mentioned once to you can come for a few months to teach both house and kitchen work, so I do not think we shall take a laundress unless some very splendid ready made article should turn up, as we do not want to have too many people about, & hope to keep Mrs Attwood till after June, for the sake of ... 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

My dear Miss Sewell, You will think that this is to announce the Simeons but there is no news of them all this time, and the hyacinths are blowing for them in vain in their bay window at Winchester.

My present purpose is to pass on to you a question which a correspondent of mine - a clergyman’s wife in Cornwall - has sent me on the principle of a delusion of which I have known other ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith

Thank you, I think this is very satisfactory, and that all the part about old Mr Webster is quite in your best style - and the contrast between the brothers excellent. Mr Webster certainly has his deserts, and one is comforted by his tardy appreciation of George. I am glad Harry’s Confirmation did go off, though by the by, you have not made the corresponding alteration in the account of his death[.] ... continue reading

My dear Mr Coxe, If you have become a DD you must excuse me just as you had to do about the omission of your final e for which Mr Wither scolded me. As I never hear him call [you] anything but Coxe I have nothing to go upon.

When we were going to Oxford before, he gave me a message from you that you would be so kind as to look out for me the ... 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 Miss Jacob Excuse the blunder of the date there is one of those revolutions going on caused by whitewash and new carpetting which drive oneself to holes and corners and one’s senses no where. It began suddenly on Saturday, or I would then have sent you Gerontius, thinking he might be a pleasant companion in your Oxford week. I hope it is successful, though Mr Wither says the Dean of Emly failed you.

How I ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I send you the Barnacle. I had thought of keeping it for May, but as she does not come till the 6th, it would be too long. After all the sheets of the Caged Lion have got bound up wrong by my fault, for I forgot to number the pages. I have now numbered them and put a notice that the reader must manage accordingly The difficulty in keeping always the same order ... continue reading

My dear Maggie, Your book marker [is] a great beauty, and I thank you very much for it, particularly admiring the beautiful little shy bee. Mamma thanks Alice for her [note] and good news of you all. I hope we shall see you before long I am much better, and feel quite proud that I am sitting up to my work this morning while Miss Wilford is lying on her back. It is ten weeks since ... continue reading

My dear Edith It is indeed a great treat to have had a note from you again. I always feel as if my grand setting to rights when you ought to have been resting in peace was one of the drops that assisted in making your bucket overflow Friday seems to me to have been a day that in the rudest health might be felt to be like air to a fish, but how kind the ... 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 Moor, We are so very much concerned to hear of Mrs Moor’s illness, of which we were not at all aware till Saturday.

I would not trouble you now, but that I should be so very glad if you found it convenient to trust us with Selina and Philip. Mr Wither (who is obliged to go to Winchester today) desires me to say he would be very glad to have them and their maid ... 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 Mary I hope your headache did not forbode influenza. I have been hoping to hear that you were well, for so much seems to be about, and my dear Mary Coleridge is entirely prostrated from it, so that the doctor only says she may recover, and she was so weak and helpless before, not able to get up from her chair, or walk without help, that I scarcely dare to have much hope ... continue reading

My dear Mr Wither We go on much in the same way, down one day and up another and as it is the same disease as Sir Tom Coulthard had, it will probably linger in the same manner. Today is a cheerful one, and she has had the Holy Communion, for which Henry comes to her after a late Celebration.

Tomorrow, Raby is to come out and see her while I have to be in Winchester ... continue reading

My dear Mary I hope you accomplished meeting Jane Moore after all, though the hitting off the right time with any Colborne is so difficult, I wonder whether Jane looks as bright and fresh as ever. We are going through a grave time- When the Woollcombes came at the end of April, Gertrude was in the midst of a very bad sick fit, however she began to revive, and they went away on Monday ... continue reading

My dear Mr Moor Many thanks for being so kind as to send me your book. I am glad it has prospered enough to come to another edition-

I think that the notice of Mr Wither’s birth was as it stood in the Hants’ paper I suppose it came from the roll at Winchester though I certainly thought he would have been 90 in November -

I am glad your German expedition was fairly satisfactory

Yours sincerely C M ... continue reading

My dear Mr Moor Your opinion so entirely coincides with ours that I almost had my pen in my hand to write to you to say that we had only ten girls and five boys at school yesterday, and that I could conceive no variety of weather that will make the way passable for you and your spectators between this and tomorrow evening, and so that I had sent out messages to say the Lantern was ... continue reading

My dear Mr West I shall be delighted to see you and any of your party on Saturday. I hope we shall look to as much advantage as we are doing on this May day of the poets – The Hursley services are at 10 AM and 7 PM on Saturdays, ours at 9 AM and 5 PM – rather impracticable hours I fear as regards Hursley. Will you come to luncheon, which can be at ... 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 Mr Warden, I find I cannot well leave home till the 3.30 train on Wednesday, so I hope to be at Oxford at 6.45. I hope this is not so late as to put out your dinner hour as I think it often is at 7.30. I am very glad to hear that Mr Wither will be there

Yours very sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Gertrude I hope your chapter will be of a length that will fit happily into July. I will do my best for its coming in. Here is your Twilight which please look over, and it will get in when there is room. I do not think I am likely to come to London I have had two outings - to Chichester in Easter week and last week to the laying the ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith

I am sorry to say your story, even with a little abridging, comes to 63 pp, and as that is nearly a quarter of the Christmas no. I had to give it up with another which I liked almost as well, but was 53 pp, so I am afraid I must keep it waiting for the end of Paul and Virginia and put it into the regular M P. I like your ... continue reading

My dear Mr Wither

The news of the day is that Lady Chichester is to be doubly Lady Chichester She marries Sir Arthur Chichester, a widower over 60, whose estate joins on to Arlington

He joins her at Arlington and his two unmarried daughters remain in possession. One of his daughters is Mrs Chichester so they have a small choice of names. Mrs Johnstone’s two pretty little boys have begun to come to Church

I suppose the archbishop ... continue reading

My dear Mr Wither

It has been a beautiful day Easter day, full Church and 104 Communicants – 50 early and 54 late – not quite so many as last year, but Frances was in bed with neuralgia and Helen is at Arlington. We had scarcely enough primroses for the Church, they are so late this year – but there were plenty of daffodils and it looked very well

No, Mildred Coleridge has not married Adams nor ... continue reading

My dear Mr Moor Mr Wither gives £7 a year and finds everything. What he wants is a girl who has been out before so as to have had her first teaching, and is well to be depended on not to be saucy or lazy with his old housekeeper, who is good natured, and will get up and do things herself instead of making the girl do them. The place is kitchen maid, as Sophy is ... continue reading