My dear Miss Smith,

I have been so much taken up that I could not answer your letter sooner, and thank you for the way you have taken it. I am amused at the ordeal you are undergoing. I never met with anything like it, except once, when going with a cousin to luncheon with a connection of hers, she was addressed with ‘Anne, why could you have lent us Abbeychurch. Those games! And that mother!’ ... continue reading

My dear William I have to thank you for some game which gives me an opportunity of writing to you. I have thought much of your concern for Lord Carnarvon’s illness, which must have been great; I felt no little interest in it myself, as he is too good a man to be spared. I was the more alarmed from recollecting how few of his family have lived to be old : now ... continue reading