Dear Mr Macmillan I have written a new preface and sent it to Spottiswood. If I did not send the former one to you I wonder what I did with it, I suppose it will come out of some strange corner.

I am glad you and Mrs Daniel think well of the Chaplet. I only wish I could give my French ladies more French grace. I have about four chapters more written but not re written, and ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I suppose the Prince and the Page will be out next week, so I enclose a list of the presentation copies. I hope I sent back the last proof, but it was only of the index, so it matters not at all, unless it has caused a delay. It has been a confused week, for the little girl, after some days of hopeful improvement suddenly lost ground and died early on Thursday morning. ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Johns, I suppose you are enjoying a Christmas rest, indeed I almost expect to hear that Mr Johns is spending his holiday on a visit to Katie. The business of my note is however to tell Katie or ask you to be so kind as to tell her, that we are having a great revolution in the state of goosedom. Some goslings having grown lazy and some outgrown it, there is to be ... continue reading

My dear Child, I am sorry to say that my dearest wife is unable to write you a little Christmas greeting as she had hoped, and as you simply have earned by your better than best behaviour in writing to her so regularly, for which we can never love and thank you enough. I wish I could say that she is at all better, but her breathing and palpitations become, I fear, more and more troublesome, ... continue reading

My dear Miss Ingelow

Your letter has just come to me here in the midst of the steep hills and narrow valleys of North Devon. I think I must have been 2 years old when I saw the baby in the blue shawl, as my birthday is in August, and we generally went into Devon in the autumn. I do not think I taught myself to read, as I was then an only child much looked ... continue reading