Dear Miss Yonge The parcel for Miss Lewis reached Tooting safely, and will not in the least inconvenience me. I will endeavour to deliver it early after my arrival.

I have read the Story of the Scotch girl. It is very interesting - rather sensational in fact. Robespierre, Danton, Napoleon, the Guillotine 'La Lanterne,' a sprinkling of smugglers with a slight dash of wreckers, highly toned Irish, Scotch, French nationalities, a mad woman, suicide, a murder or ... continue reading

My dear Frances Here is the autograph of M Guizot’s that I promised to get for you. If you could only see his collection. A bit of rough copy of one of Bossuet’s sermons, a brown scrap of the Chevalier Bose written out of the midst of the plague, an abject letter of Murat saying he was expelled from his kingdom for having followed La Système Britannique a curious letter of old Napoleon about a rising ... continue reading

My dear Mr Macmillan You will think there is no end to the irons we have in the fire. But the Population of an Old Pear Tree would be finished if we had not lost a number, and had to renew it. I send you the earlier chapters. The places for the woodcuts are marked in the margin.

But my chief reason for writing is to ask if you have heard of Beugnot’s memoirs - he was ... continue reading

My dear Miss Walker Did people in 1800 think as much about war as we do? In fact I think they had a respite then, while the Peace of Amiens prevailed. I knew the old Dean of Winchester who had been at a levee of the First Consul in that year with Sir James Mackintosh. I made my niece look at him (the Dean) he was 90, by way of making a link

I have ... continue reading