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 John I hope the untoward task you had to perform on Monday may turn out better than there seems reason to expect, for really one has no right to look for happiness from such a marriage. As the little man was going to Gibraltar, she had better have left him to take a wife from among the Monkeys of the Rock. He might have matched himself from among so many. Delia ... continue reading

My dear Anne Mamma is writing to Uncle James so I think Puslinch must hear at the same time otherwise I should like to save Uncle Yonge the anxiety.

Papa has been over working himself with spending whole long days without dinner upon Julian’s preparations, and yesterday after going to Portsmouth to take leave of him, and coming home very late, a sort of seizure came on like an exaggerated headache. We sent for Mr Lyford ... continue reading

My dear Marianne I thought often of your saying papa would be the worst of us, for we have had a terrible night. After the long day at Portsmouth he came home, and about 10 o'clock at night a sort of attack came on that frightened us very much, and we sent for Mr. Lyford who cupped him, which relieved him much, and he has been getting better since, though still with very bad oppression and ... continue reading

My dear Marianne Your letter was the pleasure of sympathy that I knew it would be. We have been going on what seems a long time, with a great deal of severe pain in the head, which gets better late in the afternoon, then he sits up, overtires himself, and makes it worse again. Yesterday mamma had one of her worst varieties of headache, as might have been expected, but it mended in the middle of ... continue reading

Dear, good old slave, How nice and kind and understanding your letter was, and how thankful one should be for such friends! ...

The worst will be over when we hear from Julian, poor boy! Till then it seems like bearing the first stroke. But I am sure it fell mercifully as far as we were concerned, and the flow of feelings that meet us from all is very gratifying.

I believe my uncle, always living in his ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith, I have been waiting to answer you till I had read far enough on in your storyx to be able to judge, and now being within a quire and a half of the end, I think I can do so. I think the history of the elder Juliet very original and excellent and I like that about young Josie very much likewise, she is a very winning buoyant creature, but indeed I ... 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 Uncle,

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me depends much on what the parish consists of. I think he did not enter upon the field sports because they were disposed of by the

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your affectionate niece C M Yonge

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 Mary I knew this loss would be one to come home to you especially, so often as you and uncle James have consulted together over illness and so much as he loved and trusted you. It grieves on to look back upon the sad anxious disappointed life it has been, with those strong vehement and always kind and generous aims so seldom successful- at least in that part of his life that I ... continue reading

My dear Mary

I am with Miss Sturges Bourne till Saturday and then poor Mildred has written of the sad end of their anxieties, a letter direct from Beatrice came after, with more hope in it; so I suppose the poor boy must have sunk in one of those fits of suffocation. It is very sad, and will half kill poor Mrs Morshead, who seems to have been able to do so much less ... continue reading