Dear Sir I have consulting [sic] my colleague as to whether she remembers having your daughter's little book She does not remember it, and I believe I had it, but did not think it came within scope of the Monthly Packet, and we have very little room for notices of books, so as only to be able to put in what bears on our purpose

yours truly C M Yonge

My dear C C We cannot find your porcupine, I think he must be shut up in a MS. Susan, the cook informed me yesterday that she is going to marry in July, rather frantic for she can only get through easy work here with Bessie’s help however I am glad to be spared the break down that there will be- and Bessie has a sister who will probably come so all will most ... continue reading

My dear Miss Smith Articles addressed to the Ed of M P go to Miss Coleridge. She has been from home and things go to arrears, which she has hardly made up yet, but I will tell her to see about your paper.

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

Dear Miss Cox I cannot promise to vote for Anne Fay but she interests me much, as I have seen a good deal of the same kind of illness and I will see whether it is possible.

I well remember the days of the Cardioscope, which I think was one of the best ideas we ever had. I have now a fellow Editor who has taken the MSS especially of poetry. I think she must ... continue reading

Dear Madam If my coadjutors can make room your paper shall go in but there is a sad crowd of appeals

yours truly C M Yonge

My dear Cobweb,

Many thanks for your share of the photograph book, which is a very pleasant possession though my view of your self was so fleeting that I am no judge of the likeness- I was in hopes of being able to send a photograph of myself to all my faithful brood, but the man at Plymouth after keeping us waiting for two months for some copies, announced that the negative was broken. There had ... continue reading

My dear Chelsea Delf, Thanks for your note- I dare say you are right about the glass windows- If you have a copy of the story, and if you or your parents liked- I think I could put it in the way of being a Magnet story- but I am quite uncertain whether they would have it (i.e. Groombridge) – Shall I try?

I send you and Chelsea Delf Cobweb each a photograph – not so good ... continue reading

My dear Irene,

Do you know your stamps never came out of your letter. I waited a day or two in case you had forgotten them and would find them out, but they are not forthcoming yet. I do not think I could have lost them in opening the letter. Many thanks for them all the same.

Chelsea Delf and you are the winners this time You for the compass

your affectionate

Mother Goose

Jany 2nd This letter got into ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I hope you have the Barnacle by this time. It was to set off on the 2nd having been detained to have sufficient time for pressing. Thanks for your answers which are the first to come for that set of questions, and so serve as the next egg. I think you must be very sorry to leave St Marks and its beautiful services. I am afraid you cannot hope to equal them any ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan, I send both title page and the proof of the statuette, which is indeed most beautiful and suggestive. I wrote yesterday about the title page. I could not do so before as I only came home late on Saturday and the Sunday post goes early. I enclose the list of presentation copies

Yours sincerely C M Yonge

Will you be kind enough to send the sheets of the Golden Deeds to Messrs Williams & Norgate for ... continue reading

My dear Cobweb, I should not have bothered you about your questions this month but that Chelsea China told me that your Mother was so much better that she thought you would be able to do them or rather ask them- and as it is so we shall get the order of things right again.

I think the two questions that will make the most variety would be the history of the Knights’ [sic] Templars and the ... continue reading

My dear Cobweb, I am staying here with the Secretary and we both give our parting greetings to one of our oldest original members. I wonder if you will ever have time to continue the Composer series in the Barnacle- I remember when Christabel told me how many lives you proposed, I was rather alarmed for the chance of the Barnacle living long enough to contain them all.

If you wish still to see the said ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Photography must certainly turn you into a most pensive mood. You are a great contrast to the solid jolly damsel in the old Gosling book. Your Ridge is very good. I will send it round with the answers, but as yet I have had no answers but Cricket and Lady bird, and the Turks cap has been so ill used that she has had neither questions answers nor Barnacle, this time – so ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Johns, I suppose you are enjoying a Christmas rest, indeed I almost expect to hear that Mr Johns is spending his holiday on a visit to Katie. The business of my note is however to tell Katie or ask you to be so kind as to tell her, that we are having a great revolution in the state of goosedom. Some goslings having grown lazy and some outgrown it, there is to be ... continue reading

My dear Frances, Is this a very outrageous thing I am going to propose. You must know Goosedom has had a shock and a revolution, chiefly induced by Mildred Coleridge having no time for it and her aunt therefore losing her interest in it. So after having very nearly broken up, we are beginning again in a more brilliant manner, and the thing is would you condescend to be a Gosling. All you would have to ... continue reading

My dear Christabel, I should have said that I think you must specify your stones, there are such a frightful number- Pray have opal and turquoise- One for its weird history, the other for its nature- but exclude all the stupid ones, like garnets &c or we shall be swamped - I shall send the parcel on Monday - Meantime I send you the grand Goslings acceptance - I think Fernseed must be her name - ... continue reading

My dear Edith,

For I cannot induce myself to write Miss C and you know we are cousins- so that your beginning did not seem natural. We are delighted with your drawing, it has just given the look of reverent awe and foreboding that was wanted, and we are very much obliged to you for it - it just takes the place wanted in our book. I was at Winton House yesterday and found the party ... continue reading

My dear Christabel, I should not have been so ungrateful if I had not been laid up, first by being deluded into eating some Scallop fish that everybody else flourished upon, and then by a wicked chair, which cast its hind leg as I was sitting down on it, and strained my back - Not till lately have I had the energy to pack up the Answers and write to you. I shall be very thankful ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I send you the Barnacle. I had thought of keeping it for May, but as she does not come till the 6th, it would be too long. After all the sheets of the Caged Lion have got bound up wrong by my fault, for I forgot to number the pages. I have now numbered them and put a notice that the reader must manage accordingly The difficulty in keeping always the same order ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I think they were rather dull questions this time and they have not produced brilliant answers but your tradition is by far the best. Poor Florence strained her back, and cannot do anything for either answers or Barnacle though she is getting better- and some of the Goslings are abroad and some visiting.

I hope your Changeling is coming, as the Barnacle will be very thin. I am keeping it to be bound ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I hope you did get my letter of thanks to Goosedom after all, though I was so stupid as not to direct it to you at your friend’s, it was a stupid letter in itself, but I was very much hurried at the time, and could not even write to you with it and since that I have been quite laid up, though I am promised that the result is to be getting ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Here is the September Barnacle – the binder has really made it so, though it ought to be the Midsummer one. I suppose that great MS ought to go round with it as I suppose no one would have patience to copy it out in the right size It was very stupid and this thin Barnacle would be much the better for it. Will you put in a note to that effect when ... continue reading

My dear Christabel If it is copyright, I think they ought to give you at least £10, you did not sell your copyright to the Eagle and it may sometimes make a difference in case of one’s wanting to collect short stories together into a volume

I do not know if this is the right sum, but it seems to me about fair

yours affectionately and much hurried C M Yonge

I shall be here till the 30th so ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I am sorry not to have written to you before, but I could not get time before. It does seem to me good time for a story again, but do you not think the Proverb foundation has been rather much worked and could not the subject be proposed in some other way. For instance suppose they were set to Write a story shewing the difference between Romance and Sentiment Only that cuts up ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Here are the answers but I really have no time to do their Cackle. The two months holidays come now, and would you kindly tell the brood that I think they had better not send me any questions after the holidays till I tell them. I hope by no means to give up Goosedom in the end, but Mamma is so sadly failing that I must for the present drop all unnecessary claims ... continue reading

My dear Mr. Butler Thanks. I wish I felt more worthy of being an Exterior Sister, but I am thankful to be joined to what is good, though I do not think you would care to have me if you knew how I ‘shrink when hard service must be done,’ and what a spoilt child I have been ever since I grew up, very nearly useless in anything practical. But I will constantly use the prayer, ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Here is another Gosling for us, and I should think a good one. She is a granddaughter of Dr Arnold her father being Mr T Arnold, and Frances Peard knows her well, which is almost equivalent to an introduction to a [sic turn of page] I send you her letter that you may see the nature of the bird and also consider of the Guernsey goose. I think we had better have her ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Thank you and Edith for taking the Bandits’ Bride, I hope your collections will prosper. We have £163, and want £700 if we build a masters house, £400 if we content ourselves with a school

Have you written to Miss Arnold, or shall I accepting Miss Clarke I find Grace Latham has not time, so perhaps we had better accept Miss Budd and Miss Llewellyn. Scotland has sunk away from us, so I suppose ... continue reading

My dear Henrietta I believe Goosedom is to be revived in the new members, not that new ones are ever so good as old. The two first proposed are accepted, and I hope your Lilian will be, but you will hear from the Secretary. I am afraid I did not find her out at the Patteson’s party. We shall have to make a new arrangement as to circulation which you shall hear in the next Cackle ... continue reading

My dear Christabel You and Mary Arnold are very decidedly the best this time, so I don’t send any others.

You will have to reform the scheme of travelling as Mignonette and Sparrow Hawk both resign in much haste

yr affect Mother Goose

Cackle Mother Goose having gone out on her broomstick she has had to delay the answers. They are not many in number this time, for Chelsea China’s popularity and Windermere’s Wars of the Roses are decidedly the superior articles. Cricket is the next to ask the questions.

Mignonette and Sparrow Hawk retire

My dear Irene You introduced the Young Gosling to me in her eggshell long ago, and I am sure the brood with [sic for will] be very happy to have her. I send [passage missing where signature cut out] is our senior member and chief manager. The first questions will come on the first of October, it is of no use to try to get them done in September. Even Mother Goose herself is going to ... continue reading

The first instalment of Barnacle is come

Yours affectionately C M Yonge

My dear C C I am glad there are some signs of life or of decay more properly of poor A D I- ! I do think there are more and more signs that a 6d phoenix would be welcomed.

I find the booksellers make all sorts of excuses for not having got it – The Authors Soc want to see my agreement before advising me. I could not find it easily before I ... continue reading

My dear C C I am sure unless we could get an amount of subscribers enough to start a new Church Packet with security, it would be vain. Could we find out? Otherwise Sir W Besant is right, and we must acquiesce. I would make Duck’s Eggs a fresh start for it is needed, but I think it is not hopeful, sorry as I am, especially that Church should be a ... continue reading

My dear C C Do you want Campbell’s Highland tales? I dont think there is anything bearing on Arthur in them he was quite Cymric not Gaelic. I sent the two Mags for young yesterday. Shall I write notices of SPCK’s books? They are not a good lot thus far as I have read, and there are two by Miss E Finnimore, the Postwoman and Uncle Isaac’s will that I am ... continue reading

My dear C C Here is a behind the times letter that concerns you. I have heard from Mr Thring, who says I can remove my books with proper notice, but as I don’t know how long proper notice is, I have written to ask, also he thinks there may be trouble about those of which A D I gives Royalty and on the older ones there is no agreement. I asked if ... continue reading

My dear C C Poor dear Sophy, she has been a heavy weight on many minds from the time of Pena’s death, in a remarkable way considering the clever, able woman she was. I heard of her release, for such it was from Mary Yonge who wanted much, as well as Charlotte to come to the funeral, but happily the two witheld each other, in the fogs and the rain and the wet grass, ... continue reading

My dear Mary I remember Charles Archer at Winchester and he once or twice called on me. Harward and Fulbert must be nearly the only ones left except Mrs Tolcher. I think Fulbert was a little while at Winchester. I sent you my idea of the insulted sufferer on a card yesterday I thought at first of Zechariah the son of Jehoiader, but that did not quite to suit and I do ... continue reading

My dear C C If I were to be dissected while I am alive, I think you would do it tenderly, but indeed I have always shrunk from seeing the lives of living people and my whole old fashioned nature revolts at the idea partly personally, and partly because I know how those who are gone would feel about it, so indeed I do not think it is possible to my feelings and I hope ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes, I have disposed of Mr Hutchinson’s Stars except for this one chapter. I found when I wrote to him that he had not meant to contribute a regular course but miscellaneous papers now and then. I want however to get the Engineering recollections in America into this volume. They are 7 but short, very entertaining and one may be doubled. The story is short too. I have not got Miss Sewell yet, but ... continue reading

My dear Florence I am very glad to hear of you again, and I hope the touch of frost will not be felt at Bournemouth; it has spared all our flowers as yet. I waited to write because Christabel was coming to make up our plans for the new volume. We will try to put in 'Purification' poem for February, but I am afraid poems do not get much payment. I wish ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes, We shall have a good Christmas Number. All I have is excellent, and would nearly suffice

But will you consider whether it would not be better to change the printer of the Packet - Clowes has never been attentive since it was transferred to them. You know I have made continual complaints of inattention to directions, and Miss Coleridge says the same. Promises of amendment have been made, but without effect, and since the ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes, I give my consent to the increase of your commission from 10 per cent to 12½ per cent.

We must sacrifice Gretchen and Archaeological Moss to Sister Florence who is more worthy. We cannot give up Rowling Manor-

Miss Coleridge did correct that tessellated mask - and you see she has marked on this revise that one of her other corrections this time was not attended to! I believe the defect must be that Clowes ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes, Votes coming straight to me, and votes going first to Miss Coleridge made a certain amount of confusion - and four for Rowling Manor dated Jany 30th, came in just at the end and carried it up to 14 votes while L’Epine Noble has twelve --- So I suppose it must be the prize one, though my own judgment would not have gone that way.

Thank you about the stamps - ... continue reading

My dear C C You may as well see this remonstrance of one of the old fashioned goody souls Mrs Crocker her name seems to be. She goes on afterwards about ‘Amethyst’— and I won’t send that, for it is all misunderstanding. I wrote a defence of Cherry and Maisie saying that she was in a process of growth, and I also explained the scope of Amethyst and that you are not a dangerous person, ... continue reading

Dearest Lizzie- Here am I writing to you out upon the lawn under the pleasant shade of the berberis. There ought to be a nightingale singing, for one lives at the corner, but he is a lazy bird, and year after year always is nearly silent after the first fortnight, though yesterday I not only heard but saw his fellow singing with all his might in a young oak, making his tail and wings quiver.

I had ... continue reading

Dear Mrs Gordon What a work you have been doing at York! Here in our county division, we had no opposition to an old Conservative member, so we were saved all the battle and heartburning; Winchester elected its Conservative, and Southampton our native squire - It is a most agitating election, and oh! How dreadful it would be to have a triennial parliament.

I have finished Eunice and she gives one a great deal to think about. ... continue reading

Dear Mr Adams I think such papers as you kindly propose would be very valuable but my colleague, Miss Christabel Coleridge must be consulted, and likewise the publisher Mr Arthur D Innes, 31 Bedford St Strand

I think as you are in London it might simplify matters if you would call on him, as he would tell you about length of papers and terms and I believe we would find the papers very interesting

Miss Coleridge lives at ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes Thank you for your kind letter, I suppose there will always be rubs of opinion when three people representing different generations of thought work together if in general principle they accord; and I know I am apt to despise popularity more than perhaps is fair in fellow workers to whom it is more important

As long as there is nothing irreverent tending to ‘Higher Criticism[‘] or to trenching on delicacy I am ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik Would you be so kind as to direct this letter on to Miss Frances Martin. The address on her letter was printed in some ‘old English type’ and after much consideration I decided that the word looked more like Carrara than anything else but the Post acknowledges no such place.

Thank you for your letter. I think this will suit us, but I will write on to Miss Coleridge. If you do not ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik In a day or two you will receive from the National Society a story of mine called Grisly Grisell. It was written for them, but has turned out too historical for their purpose, and as a tale was wanted to be coupled with ‘The Rubies of St Lo’ I think it will serve the purpose. Mr George Macmillan knows all about the Rubies, which are in the Christmas number of the Monthly Packet.

Grisly ... continue reading

My dear Lady Frederick I am afraid I cannot give you more than a week, and that the 6th must be the last possible day. I believe I am going to look over the MSS. with Mrs. Sumner and send them off on the 1st, but we can add your report at the end. I hope you are really recovered from the influenza. People are having it at Winchester, but rather slightly.

I always ... continue reading

My dear Mary I send you the Melanesian paper; would you do as the Bishop asks, and send him your address and two stamps, and so get the paper regularly sent to you? Partridge sends me a terrible number, and now they are not to be gratis to subscribers. We have told them to send in their names to Bishop Selwyn; it is getting rid of a good deal of bother.

Moreover the [[other:52]Monthly ... 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 was for Monthly Packet articles that I extracted the payment, and the stock of the books that were my personal property were handed over to Macmillan. This offer from the family must be for the actual sales that had taken place since there was an account; but these agents did not try to explain it, so I can only ‘take the goods the gods provide me’ if they do for ... continue reading

My dear C C I am doing my best to write to Macmillan I think it is our only hope and rather a forlorn one- and explaining some of its history and scope hoping not to say too much or too little, nor to shew personal feeling

But I am sure it is a thing to be considered how to have a high class magazine for young persons, as I have been telling him and ... 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 C C Did you ever hear that the treaty between Fairfax and the Cornish army was signed at Heaths Court. I never heard of it but Sir Mount Stuart Grand Duff staid with John and says it was signed in the old part of the house Perhaps dear old May was ashamed of such doings, and I should not have thought the house so old, as I remember it, and I ... continue reading

My dear C C I confess that though I mourn over the Manes of the M P I am personally a little relieved, for I was considering what I could honestly personally undertake or allow my name to be used for, in relation first to Truth, secondly in public spirit to the Church and girlhood, and thirdly in justice to kind helpers and endeavours for a fresh start. Helen has been reading the early volumes ... continue reading

My dear C C Thank you for Crispin I was glad of him for we are feeding Alethea with light literature, she having broken down, with nothing the matter but a course of overwork after the influenza- first the children’s measles, then going to Holmwood to lodgings with the children, no nursery maid, and the lady nurse not looking after her, or doing nursery maid’s work and then a good deal to do at ... continue reading

My dear C C Your paper on Novels is excellent, I only got it yesterday, as our paper boy is a blunderer. The three ladies are capital and the letting off the colourless novels without principles at all is quite true, and to the point. Miss Blackburne wrote me an account of her Authors club, I should not like to have such a thing to manage. Miss Cholmondely is the head I ... continue reading

My dear C C I wonder whether you are snowed up There were six inches of snow outside the verandah this morning and the untrodden snow is a beautiful sight as long as one has not to tread it, and is not gasping for the newspaper. I hope it is keeping the daffodils safe under it for you. Two days ago, I gathered some snow drops, and saw the noses of some of the ... continue reading

My dear C C The world seems wild with joy and flags from every window house! Maurice says traffic was stopped in London by people waving flags and shaking hands. I suppose there will be a culminating in a great illumination when it is over. Well, I shall be very glad of you on the 15th I shall like to have the benefit of the lectures, but I am afraid [[cmybook:250]my young ... continue reading

My dear C C I imagine you go home tomorrow whereby I send this letter, much wishing you a pleasanter visit next time. I have been let out to have a walk in the garden and to go about the house like a reasonable creature, and I believe the great démenagement is to come off today, only Helen shuts me up and lets me merely sort bills &c - We had the Confirmation ... 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 have got a letter for M in C from Canon Lias about Red Pottage, highly contrary to yours, and which the Sumners approve He goes on the unfitness of such subjects for women’s writing or reading, and certainly I should have thought ‘incline mine heart to keep this law’ went against either inventing or making people read them and so do you- At least I recognize you as ... continue reading

My dear C C No, you did not send me a notice of Red Pottage I am thankful you did not for that and Canon Lias would have been enough to tear M in C to pieces. However he thinks too much fuss is made about the MS in the brother’s house. Do you remember Edna Lyall subscribing to Bradlaugh from Canon Crowfoot’s house at Lincoln

But I think people with Consciences ought to ... continue reading

My dear C C I am glad of the 26th but I thought GFS stuck to the 24th & 29th. However it is all the better for me and the roses will be in their glory. The snow balls and may will be gone but no doubt you have them where you are. I wonder if Fanny Patteson will turn up any time. I throught she had, when Edith announced Miss ... 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 CC Tory is banished, Juliette fell in love with him, so he is gone to Witham Chase, a very good home for him, and Vic is left lamenting – The mother mews all over the place but as she did before Tory went, I think it is from native accidie, not maternal grief- Aimée brought Miss Price to tea and sent Juliette, a little friend and a sort of semi governess to ... continue reading

My dear CC Poor Queen Margarita This to be added to all the other dreadful things that are going on. Letting off an anarchist just encourages the rest.

Annie Cazenove’s long time of watching and perplexity is over, her mother died suddenly at last in her sleep. I wonder what Annie will do, now she is free, very well off I believe. I wonder how your discordant element will settle down ... continue reading

My dear C C Does not your paper want something more of practical application, not that I quite see how it is to be done. Maud and Lily are capitally described, but the upshot is that a nice girl does not like to be mixed up with them- also that mothers should be exhorted to keep girls nice – and mistresses to take care whom they take.

Would be possible to bring it more to a ... continue reading

My dear C C Do you know that Innes’s stock has been taken by Ward & Lock? I heard it second hand from a lady who has been enquiring after her goods. I suppose you had the letter asking creditors to accept 5 per cent. I asked what was become of the remains of what was half mine and half theirs and was told that Tanner did not know. I think we ... continue reading

My dear C C I hope the change will be a success. I did not know there had to be so long an interval, I do not remember it here, but as it was between old friends there might have been some arrangement. Wells Gardiner will not reprint ‘Forget me not’. I wonder whether I ought to try SPCK, they took Mary Bramston’s FL story last year - I don’t think Macmillan ... continue reading

My dear C C So you are to have a new Bishop, I am glad Lord Salisbury is there to have the choosing of him. Our elections have gone off quietly, and our neighbour of Cranbury is at the head of the poll at Southampton. Winchester is not settled yet, but for the county no one opposes old Mr Beach, who I believe is the father of the House The Mallocks are ... continue reading

My dear C C By all means-

My people sail on the 26th I think Mrs Woollcombe stays till Novr 1 and Lottie does not come till the end of the month Mary Morshead comes to do her African lectures on Mondays She has just given her first and you will come in for the two last-

I had a very interesting East London parson to entertain on Sunday week, a Huguenot who had ... continue reading

My dear C C Oliver’s name was an augury of his dominion over the Commonwealth of Cheyne, by a mixture of violence and flexibleness If the puppy had been a King Charles the parallel would be complete, and now you must resign yourself to being ruled over by the Major Generals, as long as the wandering mania does not carry him off. I like the Irish Christmas story very much. Henley Arden ... continue reading

My dear C C I suppose Torquay is one mass of black, and everyone telling of having been the last to get some thing needful. It is altogether solemn and beautiful the fit close of the life. Helen heard 81 naval guns and 81 artillery fire at Gibraltar, and they are living with all their front blinds closed. She is looking out for her boat so I hope to be hearing of her starting. ... continue reading

My dear C C The Kings of Scotland were Earls of Huntingdon from the time of St David, and sat in parliament as English peers down to John Baliol.

Newspaper history has been a good deal at fault. Miss Finlaison saw that Henry VII married a daughter of Edward III which might have been only a misprint, but that it went on to say that Lionel had no children and that the York claim came from ... continue reading

My dear C C I shall be very glad to see you on the 7th or 8th, I trust you will find Helen here as her ship is due before the end of this week. She sailed on the 18th and was to take ten days –weather being good, and to look in at Cadiz and Lisbon on the way. She will be able to tell you about Ronda &c. You will find ... continue reading

My dear Lottie- How are you getting on ; I am afraid there is not much change any way and that your hands are full.

I believe Helen is somewhere either in the Bay of Biscay or the Chops of the Channel; she sailed on the 18th, and in a nice cabin with her goldfinches, and after to-morrow I may have a telegram any day to say she is in the Thames.

Christabel talks of coming on the ... continue reading

My dear Miss Merriman I am sorry to hear Mrs Sumner is laid up but I am sure it is a good thing that she should be obliged to take a little entire rest. The MSS went last week. I thought they would be easier to look over as proofs, and I wanted to have Christabel Coleridge while she is here. Mrs Matthew has asked me the last moment available for the report of the ... continue reading

I could not answer before as I was at the G F S annual Conference - more over my colleague took the M S away to read. She approves of it much, and we hope to put it in among the short stories, when we can. The same may be said of Emma’s poem, ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Thank you much for Giftie. She looks very pretty and I like her picture. Yes, we will, if we can, have a Christmas Barnacle. I have one capitally illustrated paper for it already from Sparrow Hawk.

Shall we send out the Questions for December, or January, I mean shall they go New Years day, or the month before?

I think we are to have a new Gosling -

Emma Butler Wantage Vicarage Berks.

Would you send her the rules, ... continue reading

My dear Christabel What that Ivy did about her questions I cannot conceive, for both Frog and Cricket say they have had none, and yet there are some answers come in from Double Daisy and from nobody else

I have got Frances’s lame sister with me, and she is always pleased to help me by copying, so she has written out the questions for me Will you ask the next? After these that I ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Yes, the Coral islands and King René will do very well, but really the Goslings are so long that I do not think they are worth keeping up. Cricket and Double daisy are the only ones who have sent answers and that only to Henry VIII , I thought Ulysses might have been so entertaining but I believe nobody that does not live with a public library ever has books enough. ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I have my doubts whether you are not in the right and Goosedom has had its day. I do not think that now I have no one to read and discuss the answers with I do my part with the same spirit and effectiveness, and there are not enough Goslings acquainted with each other to keep the thing up with animation. Gaggles used [to] do something, but there has been no ... continue reading

My dear Christabel The Goslings will not die. I find we had better kill the useless members, and get some quite young ones in keeping the questions easier- We have now left only Cricket, Frog, Double Daisy and Pixie to whom is to be added

The Honble Alethea Colborne, Beechwood Plympton

I am not sure what she is to be called - Can you still be Secretary even if you have no time for the Questions? ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I think you should poke up Strahan, though I fancy he is very tiresome about MSS. I hope you have a copy – Goosedom is very poor this time, all the best being busy or going travelling Frog is gone to Ammergau

your affectionate Mother Goose

My dear Christabel, The Humberts are very nice people, Florence Wilford is very fond of them and he was an immense comfort to the two old ladies. He was the making of St Cross, as first Master after the reformation there, and did an immense deal both for the Church and parish, but when his wife got softening on the brain, he lost his delight and love in the place and became anxious to get away ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Good luck to you in your new work! I had various things to write to you about Will you send a list of the Goslings to

Miss Margaret Macmillan The Elms Streatham Tooting

I think I told you I have promised to make her a Gosling though she is rather too young. Who is the next to ask questions - will you send her a reminder to send them to me to choose from, and ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Goslings do multiply overmuch, but I cannot refuse to make a two headed one, like Double daisy out of these two damsels of Miss Keary’s about whom I send her letter. Will you send them the Gosling list, and standing orders I am sending them the rules. Who asks questions next – none have come to me to choose from for December- and it is January that is the holiday.

I ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I see no reason against a Barnacle if you have time to edit it. I am afraid I have not, but I think it would be a very pleasant renewal and very good for Goosedom. I shall be very glad of your last century story, with the proviso

Patience cousin and shuffle the cards. which would not be a bad proverb to write on.

Mrs Johns is well again I was at Winton ... continue reading

My dear Miss Cassell I find it will be convenient to Goosedom generally and it certainly will be so to its Mother if the answers wait to the end of January, so I have desired Chelsea China to send home a note to that effect. The last answers were unluckily lost in the frost when I sent them off to her, and as she had gone to Hanwell we did not at once discover the loss. ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I did not mean to admit another Gosling but an old promise has come up to Beatrice Morshead, Bog Oak’s sister, who like her abides at Wiverton Plympton. She is a very nice girl but I don’t think will prove as brilliant as Bog Oak was. Will you tell Cherry to send her questions – if it be Cherry’s turn. I have had none from her yet, and I can ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Here are the answers please to set on the next questioner. Is it Polypodium whom I think a very good one with plenty of stuff in her. I am sorry you have not caught any pupils I thought you would have had Mr Johns’s rejected addresses.

I am having new school experiences, having taken half an hour twice a week of our boys’ school, which somehow had got a good deal ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I think if you told Warne that you had had an offer from Smith and Elder he would be sure to take your story. The stupid man has just refused Florence Wilford’s dominie and ought to be scarified. I shall have Joanna and Fanny Patteson with me on the 20th, and it is also the time of one of the lectures, so it will depend on a good many things ... continue reading

My dear Christabel I like this very much and Gruet is a very satisfactory Eagle. It is much more satisfactory to reform Ruprecht instead of demolishing him- The land of romance too is a satisfactory variety. There is one fairy land play – also a story from Gibraltar and one from Ascension isle and one from Mme de Witt about a poor girl left in charge of her sisters children while their parents ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Your Face seems to me very effective, I long to hear more of it. I suppose it will not be like the Face story I heard of, which has a terrible ending. I hope you will go on and get me out of the eerieness it gives me. Thanks for the promise of Handley Mills [sic], I shall be so glad of it, for poor Gertrude’s reading, she is so ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Here are the Answers All to one question! I have read Hanbury Mills once to myself and am now reading it to poor Gertrude who enjoys it exceedingly – I like it very much indeed – there is so much character in the three degrees of refusement, and all the people seem to me very successful- Wilfred and Frank especially & Mrs Bridgewater and Joe. By the by in 108 & ... continue reading

My dear Christabel York and Lancaster Rose has gone- one half to school- and the other has grown too busy, so it resigns, and I have accepted a

Miss Alice Poole Uffington Farrington

She is sister to a governess I like very much –

Hanbury Mills was an immense pleasure to Gertrude. She and Frances have both bought one. I think Linda is true, but as you say, it was not possible to bring her out more. ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Here is the pay for Minne’s Knight, with many thanks. I conclude you are at home. You will see proposals for a monstrous Goose affair in the next packet, but I shall get help in the selection of the essays. I hope you will do the Snow and Sun next year

Who asks our question next? I should think Hanbury Mills must be a great success, every body seems to ... continue reading

My dear Christabel It is a fine story and I like it. I dare say you never read Rosanne, a very old book of the beginning of the century, where there is the same idea, a girl brought up by an infidel father with her mind a blank, and then struggling towards the light, and assimilating every shred. Her first prayer is very beautiful but I think your unprayed prayer is more ... continue reading

My dear Miss Yonge, I have to thank you for your kindness in presenting me with a copy of your Life of Bishop Patteson which I assure you I regard as no ordinary favour; - with a still deeper feeling, however, for the book itself is a lasting benefit to the Christian world and I trust to the Heathendom yet to be reclaimed. He being dead still speaketh. Such an example will do ... continue reading

My dear Miss Palmer I am delighted with both your papers, I did not write before as I wanted to read them aloud to my invalid friend, and we enjoyed them very much. I did not find out that the thundering Legion was coming till the clouds were at the Carpathian mountains.

Una and her knight I like very much too and shall be glad to keep them and put them in I do not see ... continue reading

My dear Christabel Some of the answers are at home, and some have followed me about and I must wait to act Mother Goose till I have got them all together as I hope to do when I get to Tyntesfield the end of next week. I have made acquaintance with Gridiron, whom I found staying at Wantage. She is not so lame as Gertrude but I should think in a far more precarious ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

The 1st of July is the right day, but it is convenient to be beforehand with it, as things get much better read than in the great mass of strangers. Miss Bramston has sent a splendid one called the Isle of Progress, - all about 500 years hence. Fanny Awdry has done rather a nice one of the boy type, and I have a few more but dying is so much ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Writing about cheerfulness with a heavy cold in one’s head on a summer day, may be as hard as writing in the midst of a wet cricket match but I am trying to do it. I shall direct this to Hanwell, not knowing where you are at Chiddingfold I suppose with the Humberts. Have you heard that Mr Trant Bramston is going to be married, and so Miss Bramston’s occupation comes ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Pretty well all I could pick up about those four Portuguese brothers is in a cameo. They must have been splendid people particularly Enrique and they had a curious resemblance to their first cousins - Henry IV’s sons – You know ‘The Constant Prince’ is the name of a play of Calderon’s about him but I don’t think that would help you much. There is a translation either by Abp Trench ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I should like of all things to have the dear Fernando, but alas! I don’t see a scrap of room for him before Christmas Orina will last till the summer Our Young ladies till Christmas, Magnum Bonum 2 years - (I fear) Then Miss R N Carey begins a long story in July, and I can't see a chink to put any thing in till Our Young Ladies are ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Here are a not very brilliant set of answers I rather doubt whether the question about the fall of Constantinople was understood I expect there will be a rush at Gridiron’s ghost question.

I shall be very glad if Fernando ends by coming to me. Miss Webers At Sixes and Sevens, a conclusion to I wonder why is very disappointing Grace is so stupidly in love ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Fernando is here and we have read his first five chapters with much enjoyment the only observations I have to make is that the little girls would have been Leonor and Catalina, and that surely Portugal was held by the Moors till Henry of Burgundy conquered it. I know that Arabia has not affected the language, but I think they possessed the country I like all this about the 5 sons ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

It is a beautiful story If May & I could be girls again how we should rave about those princes. I hope some one else is capable. One or two things- Why were appletrees rare? I thought they were genuine old English I’m sure crabs are! Alvarez is a patronymic he should be Alvare, and the Portuguese would have called Sir Walter Don Guiltierre

I think the ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Here are only two Goslings and those very poor ones. Mayfly says she has had no questions since April. Moreover Frog is going to be married in September so do not you really think it would be better to give a coup de grace to the Goslings and let them turn into Spiders. Somehow I think we might let each spider in rotation send me up a few questions to ... continue reading

Mother Goose & the last Gosling of the original brood, faithful where few were faithful found having eaten goose together on Michaelmas day solemnly dissolve the ancient Brood. Having begun with 12 intimate friends & cousins who actually did 4 questions once a month it has come to only two once in two months & of those generally only one answered by a few - while there is little acquaintance between many[.] It ... continue reading

My dear Elizabeth

Gertrude has just been observing to me ‘You seem to have fallen in love with that story as you did with Miss Wordsworth’ which I suppose expresses a good deal of the way I have gone about in it. I do think it is a very fine and beautiful story, and I am not sure that there is not more substance in it than in anything the M P has had, ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Such a letter as yours is hard to answer usefully, though so far as sympathy goes I know it exactly, how distressing and humiliating it is too feel ones creatures go so far beyond one in goodness that they only condemn one to oneself, while other people take them for tokens of ones goodness and then the being religious intellectually rather than spiritually and the way in which unhappiness aggravates one’s temper, and ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Mr Wilson says that the 12th will suit him best, if we drive over early So will you let me know your train on the 11th and you shall be met at Winchester, I know I shall want to send there. By the by, perhaps I should tell you that Maurice is sent home with chickenpox, and probably the others will have it, but besides the probability that you have had ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

This is very nice if the evidence about the alibi is quite clear enough, for I don’t see why old Bill’s evidence was not enough if the boy had been with him - but perhaps I did not understand that clearly. The only other thing that struck me was that perhaps the effect of this illness would be better in the story if you could make the first a little less ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Cherry is very satisfactory. The only thing I was not prepared for was Roland’s death, and Dick’s keeping the property I expect he married Nettie after all, though it is quite right not to say so. I like the contrast between Cherry’s feelings in the two illnesses very much, it is rather those of the rest of the family that I thought in danger of repetition. Miss Seyton I think ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

The Packet will be happy to take Cherry cut down when Heriot’s Choice is over. I am afraid it will last a long time – for I never can succeed in getting in two chapters of Heriot’s Choice- Our pupil teachers have had a paper sent in from Salisbury training college for religious examination, saying 2nd class – Alice Misselbrook 8, Harriet Godwin 18, but whether this means no from the ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

You must take care about the law of the thing for if Alvar has been subpoenad as a witness Cherry’s appearing would not save him from a terrible scrape. It could be only at the examination before a magistrate at first. The Spanish indifference to doing good to one’s neighbour might come out well I wonder whether he ever could come to be good for much I should like ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I never thanked you for your last kind note- The loss out of ones life is very great, though the long weakness and inability to correspond had done much to break the habit of dependance for sympathy & confidence so that one can bear it better than if ‘her sun had gone down while it was yet day’.

I have been making efforts through Mr Awdry to get the Blue Bells taken by ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I am sorry to say the 11th is the only day Mr Wilson is available that week and that (unless she alters[)], is MFCK’s day. How would it be if you came here on Monday 9th I sent you to Rownhams on the 11th, and you then returned to Winchester the same day – either having something to come for you here or being set down at Chandlers ford or ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

How soon do you like to come, for I am now quite ready for you. Mary has finished her visit, and then I had Elizabeth Wordsworth for a couple of nights on her way back from Foare. I hope your father is well again; and the Church getting on. We shall not regale you with an inspection this time, Mr Green was much more amiable, and the girls did very ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I heard of both your troubles from Mary Lund, Miss Finlaison’s scholar whose brother is with Ernest, but I much doubted where you were. I dare say your coming home made a change that was good and refreshing to all. It was sad indeed to lose this second boy, after all the sorrow for the first I hope the little girl is strong.

The Squire has spread happily into three volumes. ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

It certainly used to be considered the thing to give the publisher of the magazine the refusal of the story but there is so much more free trade in publishing now that I do not know whether this is still necessary. I think most likely Masters would say he did not want to have it particularly.

No, I think Miss Ingelow has diverged plentifully from you, except in the original idea. ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

There is a nice little life of the Black Prince by Louise Creighton in Rivington’s series of Biographies. Also G P R James wrote a nice long romantic life of him which might be in old libraries, and Canon Warburton has a life of Edward III in Longman’s Epochs of history. I can’t understand about the grown man schools, but Mr Green is pretty sure to be right. I cannot ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Thank you for your proverbs, which are very curious. There are some odd Eastern ones in todays Saturday, one of which takes my fancy, though not for a Christmas number ‘If a Jackal howls shall my old buffalo die’. I am afraid people would not understand it. I mean to have

Crow not, Croak not

as the next year’s proverb. I think most peoples’ stories are variations of a certain ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Here are two themes for you quite true to start upon. Alice Moberly once found a diamond ring left behind on a wash hand stand in Switzerland. Invent the previous and subsequent history of that ring.

Also – At Dorchester Church in Oxfordshire there is the tomb of a Crusader, not lying peaceably on his back, but writhing round his spear. Something might be written to account for this – ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

The elder sister may be a good modification and pray do you – or FMP invent a love story to work in.

No Robber appears so do pray write him, also Geo III and the beggar. I have done a White Ship. There ought I fancy to be about 30, and I have 28 in my eye or written out ie if I take two Whittingtons.

What do you think of the baby Pretender ... continue reading

Dear Mr Craik

I think the printing may be begun at once of Stray Pearls, and the proofs had better come to me as inconsistencies arise when tales run on long. And besides I always find that the printers make their worst blunders when their copy is in print. I suppose they set on their worst hands. Clay is sure to have the copy. It may very well come out in April - it will only ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I suppose you are beginning daily life again. When in some ways it is so hard When it feels as if there were so few in the house, and yet when people talk it gets into a whirl and one does not care about it, and oh! the letters that seem as if they would never get themselves written. I suppose you stay where you are and in that way are much ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Here is a beginning of Mrs Lyndhurst. I am afraid she is too much in the Aunt Dora style. I think we might do without Sylvia I don’t see anything for her to do. Denys seems to me quite enough, so I send nothing about her, though if needful I could put her in afterwards. Denys may have a calf love for Rachel which may make a man of him. ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Things change a good deal.- Before John went to America, he altered his will so as to make her tolerably dependent on Bernard, hoping thus to put a stop to it all and thinking it would keep the man on his good behaviour. Since that he offered £300 for her life if before June, Mr Adams found employment so as to secure a reasonable even if small income, £400 if she ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

This is all the writing paper I have, being ‘en clôture’, with a pupil teacher, a candidate- and three senior scholars – whom I have to superintend, as Mr Brock is called off to preach at Andover. It must be rather a relief, for his son and heir squalls incessantly day and night, and Gabrielle resents being a dowager at less than 13 months. Well- I was not sure about ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I should think on the whole that it was intended to decline the book except at your expense. I do think the resemblance to Don John is a disadvantage though you have treated it in such a different way. And had not Low something to do with Don John, either through Good Words or Miss Ingelow. I am on the whole afraid that as I see in the Guardian that ... continue reading

My dear Lizzie

. . . I see in the paper the death of a third Sumner within a few months; I hope our Archdeacon won't be the next. His wife was a Heywood, and is very valuable. They have given up Alresford and come for good to the Close, and are very useful. Christabel Coleridge has been here. The Princesses give great satisfaction at Torquay, where they walk about ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I do not know what advice to give but that I wish they would take GFS, though I know I would not the authorities are so troublesome. How stupid about the Jubilee address sacrificing the reality of the Signature to the tidiness of the sheets. I think as someone said that the GFS is like the Church in flourishing in spite of the drawbacks of its supporters!

As to your questions, ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Many thanks. It will be the printers own fault if we are late for they are to keep holiday till Tuesday. I think you are right as to GFS chiefly because there is a continual conjugating of the verb to worry, active & passive I wish the Central would learn not Men’s Societies dont They have made all clergymen hate the concern! I wish I could ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Don’t answer till you have time, and the fascinations of the twins are withdrawn, but I am moved to tell you first that Katie Lloyd has sent me a most exquisite oil picture of Fotheringay Church with such a look of sunshine, such reflections in the water, such trees. I am sure she has improved much – and she has put it in a frame that I fear must have cost her ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

I never did expect the debate in time for June, only we should have had a question. It may be as well to reserve those two letters in case of need for August. I fancied you knew that Annie Cazenove is the Muffin man I think she is one of the very best and most selfdevoted people in the world, but she had the disadvantage of being the only ... continue reading

Dear Mr Innes

I am afraid I never answered about the MS. It will not do being too much of the mere novelette. I do not object to such dénouements, but a story ought, I think to turn on something besides.

Miss Coleridge has £5 a year for her work upon Debatable Ground. I do not know if that was mentioned but she has not had it yet. I think you have her new address.

I think you ... continue reading

My dear Miss Kirke

I send you my autograph and a few more that I happened to have by me, but I do not know if those that are only initials with [sic] be useful to you. CRC is Christabel Rose Coleridge, author of Lady Betty, Hugh Crighton’s Romance &c. F M P is Frances Mary Peard author of a good many novels, M R is Margaret Roberts, author of Mlle Mori. Louisa Molesworth (Mrs) has ... continue reading

consciously – in extremity breaks his heart over it and is converted by his failure. I have had my head very full of it. I want to know what you think of the Apples of Sodom, for we have various controversies about it, Christabel thinks the one religious man becoming morbid and accustomed a mistake and likely to promote the popular fancy about good men and clergy, and Miss Bramston says ... continue reading

My dear Christabel

Many thanks and no time for more C M Yonge

My dear Miss Acland I am sending Pompei (it does not look natural) to Christabel Coleridge at Cheyne, Torquay, and it will be more convenient for her to let you know about it, as I am not the sole dictator of Packet now, but one of a triumvirate - being really, I suppose, rather dropped behind the present world.

I fear that any how the diagrams cannot be brought in, but that the publisher must decide, and ... continue reading