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 Mr Macmillan, Many, many thanks[.] the birthday for which the Heroes were wanted comes tomorrow, so nothing can be more convenient. The Lances look very well

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

My dear Mrs Latimer Thank you very much for the adventure in the Night Express which is just the thing; either as Christmas number or short story, I am not quite sure which, any way I am very glad of it. We are more open to short articles now so I should like to have your Civil engineer again. I was sorry to part with it though I had never used it

I return that very ... continue reading

My dear Mary I hope the sheep were expelled sufficiently not to return again, and that these lovely spring days are healing the wounds they left. I went to the Copse today and found the daffodils all but out, and there are many violets in the garden. The excitement of the week was that last Sunday morning Miss Finlaison fell down stairs with a large red glass lamp in her hand, which cut her ... continue reading

My dear Mary That letter came to me with a request that I would forward it to Mr Arthur Yonge whom the writer had met 7 years before in New Zealand, by which I concluded he did not mean Arthur in America and I thought it would just meet him with you, but probably it will find him in time. Poor Annie Woollcombe, the deaths from illness seem sadder than those in battle, and yet ... continue reading

My dear Mary, There are very anxious accounts of poor uncle James, the last Kate Low had seemed to think he must give himself up to be an invalid, I think however that the power of bearing confinement often comes with weakness, in those who have been most active – and what a blessing his wife is. What should we have done but for her? I do not like the accounts of Alethea Pode’s ... continue reading

My dear Henry. To begin with domestic intelligence. You and your kind wife will, I am sure be glad to hear that a very fine little boy made his appearance here on Saturday evening - one day less than 13 months younger than his sister; who has not quite decided whether he is a doll or not.

Next, I shall be very glad of the prospectus &c that you propose to send, for I want details of ... continue reading

My dear Mary, How well George Harris seems to be going on. It is a great relief even if it be only a present rally, and rest and summer may do much for him. I hear he is eating oysters and much enjoying them. I hear that the Mr Merton Smith who is coming to Plympton St Mary is an excellent person not a Wantage Curate, but a neighbour. I do not ... continue reading

My dear Mary

I hoped to be able to tell you by this time that Julian was quite free and had had his discharge but though the money is paid, the forms take a long time owing to the wearisomeness of lawyers however all the real trouble is over now. I do not think it has every been in any but the Hampshire papers which had a kind little paragraph about a Gentleman much respected

Fancy ... continue reading

My dear Augusta

It is a long time since I heard of you and almost as long since I heard of Kate, and I am anxious to know how she got on this summer I hope Ernest is quite well after his chicken pox. I went about looking for him at Domum till I met Mrs Morshead and she told me he was gone home. The only Saints day that they did ... 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

Dear Sir

I am obliged for your letter, which confirms the view I have had for many years that it is not possible for a person of a different nationality to draw a thorough portrait of one described from within, as it were. You remember that in dealing with foreign scenes, Scott always took a Scotch or English hero - in whose person he saw all the surroundings

In fact I have never had any intimate knowledge ... continue reading

My dear Louisa, I am so much obliged to you for that letter, I think the giving a set of necessary tables to be learnt by heart is an excellent idea which I had not thought of. I had come to your conclusion about questions. I had been always used to them with school children, but Helen and Arthur have minds and memories awake enough not to want to be badgered with questions. The plan I ... continue reading