My dear Anne

Thanks for your letter, and Mamma’s thanks for Mary’s. I am very glad indeed that you like Amy Herbert though I was sure you would enjoy it, her brother comes here today and I am sure he will be glad to hear of its being such an amusement to aunt Yonge. I am curious to know what you say about certain things I have heard objected to Some people especially ... continue reading

My dear Marianne Your letter was the pleasure of sympathy that I knew it would be. We have been going on what seems a long time, with a great deal of severe pain in the head, which gets better late in the afternoon, then he sits up, overtires himself, and makes it worse again. Yesterday mamma had one of her worst varieties of headache, as might have been expected, but it mended in the middle of ... continue reading

Dearest Carry, I enclose the memoranda which I have made in reading Dynevor Terrace here for the second time. If you can not explain all my difficulties, perhaps you will get Charlotte herself to do so. Some of them, mainly those which proceed from ignorance or forgetfulness of passages in books with which she is quite familiar, will appear to her very strange, and many of them probably to you also.

The characters are I ... continue reading

My dear Caroline I shall like very much to send a pound towards your window; shall I send it to you at once by a post-office order? I hope your diaper will be as beautiful as some of those patterns of the Cologne windows of which we used to have a great sheet, and I always longed to see in glass, thinking that they would be better than bad figures.

Miss Keble's illness was a very bad ... continue reading

It is quite a comfort, my dear Mrs. Moberly, to have your letter, and to answer it immediately. And it is better to write than to see you; our hearts would be too full for speech. Charlotte and I can only trust ourselves to talk at times. It comes at the best possible time for us all; these services are so especially full of Mr. Keble. At the same time we are quite alive to ... continue reading

My dear Helena Here is your ‘little bill’ I made out the cheque to you as I thought it might give less trouble.

I am not sure if you meant that Mrs White was one of the two daughters who erected Richard Cromwell’s Monument or one of the Wyndham daughters, on the tablet of the Bethia who had twenty children. What was the date?? I do not think you mentioned it of either. When we came ... continue reading

My dear Bea, No doubt this extract is what Carlyle went upon. Oliver Cromwell’s - or the Commonwealth Great Seal as figured by Knight has the map of England and Ireland on one side, and (apparently) parliament sitting on the reverse. The authority for it is not given. Rapin’s history however says that Richard had a new Great seal made for himself, and this must be the thing that was hidden, as it was an awkward ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan I delayed my answer till I had communicated with the Heathcote family - at whose request chiefly this history of Hursley has been undertaken.

I rather expected them to demur at making the book so expensive to buyers, and was thinking over the possibility of starting with it much abridged, leaving out the Plan and the Customs of Merdon Castle, the Birds Flowers, descriptions of parishes and Words - and most of the ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan I hope to send off the illustrations - or the material for them on Saturday.

I will write to Mr Portal, the Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for permission for the portrait of Sir Wm Heathcote

Two books are with them - one (Lady Heathcotes) for the sake of the old views and plans - it is the original book by Marsh.

The other belonging to me is the Revd J.F. Moor’s written about 1860.

The ... continue reading

Dear Mr Macmillan I am asking Mr Medley (The Rev John Medley Tyntesfield, Bristol) to write to you direct about his Grandfather’s drawing. It is rather a question what he may feel able to do, as it does not belong to him but to his cousin. It is in a book, but whether only fastened in, or bound up I cannot tell

I have told him that in either case, book or drawing would be ... continue reading

My dear Caroline

Somehow I must write for one can easier do that than say, all that my mind is full of .

It is very very kind of Lady Heathcote to send me that message and of you to think of me. I shall be there at the house on Tuesday - and as it is Gertrude’s Communion day, it will be a fit beginning and will chime with you.

I hope to come over on Thursday, ... continue reading

My dear Bella

Gertrude begs me to write and enquire how Mr Walpole is. I am afraid it takes a long time to recover from anything so exhausting as nose bleeding. Our Bishop however seems quite to have done so - he has got happily through this time of hard work at the Diocesan Conference We had a very interesting meeting afterwards at the Deanery about Women’s Work in the Diocese - ... continue reading

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