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

I was thinking of the Southey and Scott controversy, and wondering if the self-consciousness of the men had anything to do with the personality of their heroes, whether Sir Walter went any deeper into himself than into the rest of mankind, and whether Southey from looking at the outside of himself con amore did not get inside of other humans too. I always do think it a strange thing how one can care so ... continue reading

My dear Miss Butler I must thank you for the motto, I have a certain liking for Götz partly for Sir W Scott’s sake I believe omission /or rather deferring is better than mincing after all, but it is hard to manage to fit all into 80 pages, where the grave, the useful and the gay must each have a fair share, and the dull gets put off & put off till our deferred correspondent ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith,

I have been so much taken up that I could not answer your letter sooner, and thank you for the way you have taken it. I am amused at the ordeal you are undergoing. I never met with anything like it, except once, when going with a cousin to luncheon with a connection of hers, she was addressed with ‘Anne, why could you have lent us Abbeychurch. Those games! And that mother!’ ... continue reading

Dear Miss Yonge I will see whether we can find some one who would do a few vigorous outlines for the little Duke. Something like those to Kingsleys Heroes. Reproductions of foreign books are not generally successful.

We send the Daisy Chain to press today

I am very glad indeed that you take to our idea. It would do admirable [sic] for a Christmas book. I think you have quite caught the idea I had & I think ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge The M S. has come all right. Sending as early as - I am thankful indeed you do, to address him here is the simplest way. His private address is 2 Newton Villas Finchley New Road. N.W.

I shall be very glad to hear about the result of your conference with Miss Sewell. My only feeling in the suggestion I made re - Montfort was that each volume - supposing it is found ... 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 Mr Palgrave The shortest way will be to send you our number, to which you are very welcome as long as it can be of any use to you - though I should like to have it again ultimately.

You will see that a good deal of the scope of the article goes to the influence of Scott’s works in preparing minds for the Church movement, but the suppressed poetry breaking out is the main ... continue reading

My dear William I have to thank you for some game which gives me an opportunity of writing to you. I have thought much of your concern for Lord Carnarvon’s illness, which must have been great; I felt no little interest in it myself, as he is too good a man to be spared. I was the more alarmed from recollecting how few of his family have lived to be old : now ... continue reading

Dear Mrs Charles

Thank you most heartily for the book you have been so kind as to send me. Such lives as those always remind me of that saying of Sir Walter Scott that Mrs Hemans preserved - ‘Do not say that noble blood is wasted, it sends down a roaring voice through all time’

May it lead to fresh worthy deeds -

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

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