Related Letters
Dear Madam I send two of the books you wish for. The Cross Roads is I find being read to a class of G F S girls, but will be finished by the time you have done with these two. John Brent is by S Baring Gould, one of the penny SPCK series. I know I have it and have read it aloud, but I cannot lay my hand on it this moment.
I have only one ... continue reading
My dear Henry Mr Steward has written at last. He says two very nice girls Mildred Luckett and Kate Brown will be ready at Christmas, so I am writing to him to engage one of them, and she can talk it over with A. Diddams who can tell her all about the place.
He also gives me a list of ex pupil teachers who could keep school after the 1st of October till the mistress is ready. ... 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 Lottie I put off writing till the 19th was over, for it really was a very interesting day, though I little knew beforehand all they were going to make of it. About £1800 was collected for the scholarship, and this was presented, with a beautifully illuminated address, by the Bishop in the High School, making a wonderful speech about having read the Little Duke when he was a small boy, and all that ... continue reading
after a bad passage. Frances and Helen both spend Christmas at the Vicarage, but one must go back when Maurice’s short holiday is over –
Henry’s old uncle, a Canon of Chichester has left him £1000
... continue readingMy 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 the sheep robbers did not reach the roots of the Corfu iris, and that other plants will recover. You must put in plenty of annuals to repair the damage. I suppose that having workmen about the gates and gaps became infirm, but the maids ought to have seen the enemy. I am afraid in the present state of things, I cannot leave home for though Gertrude is generally ... 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
. . . But I must tell you of something that has given me the greatest pleasure. About two years ago a lady belonging to the Mission at Calcutta wrote to me that a Hindu student had been so much impressed with the Pillars of the House as to accept Christianity, and that he was going to be baptized. So I sent out one of those illuminated cards that are given at baptisms (Henry Bowles ... continue reading
My dear Mary I hope your Dynamite explosions will soon cease Are they through Sheepstor or through the wood above Hanover Green[?] Major Woollcombe and I have been mourning over them. He does not think the Auckland people are RCs. You remember one Lord Auckland was Bishop of the I of Man. A RC named Capes, who takes one of the houses on the Winchester Road and the village people say his rough ... 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 dearest Marianne- Raby will have told you that my dear home companion's long patience has ended.
She was really dying ever since last evening, though the end did not come till one o'clock to-day, holding my hand, and asking Henry's prayers all the time till consciousness was gone, not many minutes before the end. I do not think in the relief I feel the difference it will make to me.
Your strawberries were really welcome to me---one ... continue reading
My dear Mary Gertrude’s long patience is over- It has been a sharp morning, ever since 9 o’clock she has been actually dying - Henry came and gave her the Holy Communion at 10 and then she went on whispering for his Prayers and hymns till 1 o’clock always holding my hand when consciousness failed her, and she went about a quarter past. It has been a very dear companionship of 24 years ... continue reading
My dear Ellie
Thank you. I have written to Logan to begin next Tuesday the 29th. To start at the quarter is convenient to one’s memory. I suppose he can hardly be Miss Sturges Bourne’s old Logan, is he his son?
‘From Lynn to Milford Bay’ I thought of on Tuesday when our fire was blazing built judgematically under Mr Dennis’s superintendence so as to be bright for half an hour and then to fade. Seven ... continue reading
My dear Mary Helen and I are sitting outside the summer shelter for its shade She is full of histories of London where they saw everything beautifully in the Park. George – as one of the 14 Rhodesian horse, had no end of honors[sic], the mob tried to kiss their medals (which were not the right ones after all, they get them tomorrow from the Prince at Buckingham Palace) He had to ride ... continue reading
My dear C C I hope your Rector has made a good beginning. Had you to hear the 39 articles? Mr Bowles read them out twice, and Mr Gordon Wickham of Crookham fainted away in the middle of the celibacy of the clergy, and Lord Frederick Kerr carried him out of the pulpit which as he afterward, after much difficulty, married Miss Kerr, was highly curious.
I send you two more sets of leaves which ... continue reading
My dear C C It is a cruel stroke to lose Lanty at the same time as M P You must feel desolate like Othello. Aimée Leroy has an idea, and may write to you about it, anent M P She says she has seen A D I’s business advertised to be sold. I have not, but I think my notice was sent in time. He has taken no notice, ... continue reading
My dear Mary I have been meaning to write for some days, but they have managed to be full, and now I hope you have good accounts of Dorothea and the little maid, and that Charlotte has a happy nursing.
Poor Alethea has quite broken down, with really nothing the matter with her, but she has had no proper rest all this year First the influenza, then all the children’s measles then going to the ... continue reading
My dear Christabel Mrs Sewell came to call on Saturday and brought Mrs Brook, who said she was one of your old friends, so we had a talk about you. Henry has been setting up flags and making the children do honour to St George’s day. We are in high spirits about our reports, they are better than ever they have been but there is influenza still about.
Adam Grigson is good but the cult of ... 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 C C I hope the melting process has slackened and will not be heated up again next week. It really was overpowering weather, and the thunder storms seem to have been awful. They did not come very near, but cooled us. I have just been informed by a school child that a lady was at Church on Sunday who wishes to make acquaintance with me ‘She is a poetess, and has been ... continue reading
My dear C C There is much to rejoice in in that SW line, poppies meandering streams and all, and Oliver was capable of a welcome. Tory disposed of three young mice yesterday (What would the Puritan have done to him?) I thought of sending them to the Eastleigh bazaar tomorrow, but they are still too young - Alethea is come home and had a hayfield party yes on Saturday Her ... continue reading
My dear Mrs Lennard I must send your name on a separate piece of paper, as the book must go from Macmillan as I do not keep a stock of copies by me, and besides I think booksellers packing is safer than home, if I had a copy I was sure was new all through.
What a sad loss of all your precious books, that can never be repaired! We are looking forward to the 50th Consecration ... continue reading
My dear Mrs Harrison Thank you so much for my God daughter’s photograph. Alas! I have been a very bad Godmother to her, never having a chance to come in her way, but I go so little from home and when I do, it is always to my own people in Devon.
I have not been to London even for three years! Unluckily I just missed Mrs Bland when she was staying with the Bakers at Winchester. ... continue reading
Dearest Jay
If you would write to me once a fortnight how delightful it would be for we do let each other drop fearfully, and as long as my poor Gertrude is in her present state I can not go from home unles I can leave Mary Woollcombe here. She is here now, finishing a fortnights stay, during which I have been able to get a few days with the Moberlys. Near as they ... continue reading