Dear Sir I should think Miss Knapp’s story would have every chance of attention if you recommended it to Mr Duncan in person, I have always found that literary work stands on its own merits and on the actual opening for it.

I feel quite sure no recommendation from me would be of half the use of your requesting Canon Duncan to let his reader judge of the M S. That is where the real decision lies, ... continue reading

Dear Mr Duncan

Gray is difficult with all the notes, and so is Anstice, so perhaps they had better come out. I did not mean the poetry to have been numbered as Lessons but to have stood as a sort of embellishment to be learnt or not according to need - or understanding I should rather have omitted the conversation between Arthur and Hubert than the account of the murder of the Princes in ... continue reading

Dear Mr Duncan

I am glad you have come to another edition. I am looking at the corrections, beginning at the end and hoping to finish by post time.

Sir Walter Scott spells Stewart thus—and I was told that Stuart was only adopted when the family forgot the proper spelling of their name in France.

I made the genealogy through the Scottish kings instead of through the wife of Henry I better to introduce their names and as ... continue reading

Dear Mr Duncan

I send you a first instalment of the first book of Historical poetry, I think there are about 30 of such pieces as these, containing nothing too difficult for a child of nine or eight years old. I suppose that will be enough for the first book, as it would be better to have it small and cheap enough for being learnt at home.

I have chosen only what are simple in language and ... continue reading

Dear Sir

I think it would be well to send me a set of sheets of What to Read, that I might add to them or cancel them on occasion. I know there are some good books of this winter not added, and Goldhanger Woods, and I have not seen a sheet since before Christmas. I am afraid the books may be forgotten and omitted if I do not set them down soon

Yours &c C M Yonge