My dear Mr Macmillan I think Miss Sewell and I pretty well came to this conclusion that the first of our periods should begin with William the Conqueror and end with the absolution of King John, so as to make its leading idea the great strife for supremacy between Church and State. I believe we have plenty of materials for a volume. She under takes the compilation of the materials, and I am to write the ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Johns,

I have been waiting to write till I could see whether we could manage bringing Alice Coleridge up to Winton House, as we quite hoped to do at the beginning of her visit, but our having other friends with us all last week made it impossible to be contrived, and now she is going away on Thursday and I do not see my way for either tomorrow or next day, so I ... 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 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 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 Florence The constituent parts of the New Barnacle don’t come in fast, but I know there are a few more to come for vol. xvii. If enough do come in to be worth binding, I think I must leave it in your charge. I send you what I have already come in for it, and please keep it to see whether there comes enough in addition to use. If there does, I will write ... 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

Dear Madam

I am exceedingly obliged to you for this kind gift of good old Mrs Pascoe’s letters. She was indeed a most amusing and clever correspondent and her letters were always a great pleasure to my mother and me. I never saw her, but I heard of her from two old neighbours, Mrs Keble, who used to see her at Penzance and Mr Arthur Johns who was an old neighbour.

Pray thank Mrs Rogers much for ... continue reading

My dear Mrs Johns,

It shall not be my fault but my misfortune if I do not see the diversions of Winton House on Tuesday - I was going from home on Monday, but I have just put it off.

I wish Mr Johns’s lectures had been after noon ones. Then I could have come! The Skeleton seems waiting till publishing matters are less dead.

I hope this great evening is a sign that you are pretty ... continue reading