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Frances Mary Yonge to Mary Yonge



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103.Frances Mary Yonge to Mary Yonge


MS Plymouth and West Devon Record Office 308/2564
[9 March 1854]
My dear Mary

I hope this mild day is doing every thing for your father’s cure, I wish more for his own sake than mine that he could have been here, but the necessity of allowing half the county to shew their respect made it much more trying to the family.


I seem to be out on a visit, and I do not know how I shall get on when we resume our old habits. Anne is a very very great comfort and I am employing her this morning in writing for me which saves both me & Charlotte and at walking time she is invaluable. Duke has done us a great deal of good and we thank him for giving up so much time to us. I have desired Duke to get a full explanation from Harry Mason of his views about the Wheat, and your Father will advise us accordingly. It does seem so strange to me to give orders. I have hardly got to think myself mistress of the house in the place of my Mother, and now I have not only to try & do my best, but to avoid the danger of being too much engrossed in my wish to keep things from going to ruin, and I try to keep Charlotte from what I most dread for her, the forlorn feel on those evenings the pleasures of which you know so well, and how she enjoyed them. Poor Julian I cannot write about him till his letters come.
your affect

F M Yonge


Otterbourn

9th March 1854


104.To Elizabeth Roberts


MS Huntington Library: Yonge Letters
March 11th [1854]
Dear Miss Roberts,

I do not like to leave you longer without a few words of thanks for your kind letter. We were indeed most mercifully aided and supported in our time of greatest need by all the help the Church affords, or rather the Lord of the Church. It was not one of our least blessings that our Church (of which my Father was almost the sole architect) is so close to the garden that we could go to the service every day of that week, and all the time till our own kindred could come to us we were soothed and cared for by Mr and Mrs Keble, who kindly called it parish work to take up their abode in the house of mourning. And now it is over, it is marvellous how much strength and spirit we have been allowed to retain, so that we are recurring with interest to the occupations which his interest and pleasure in them still seem to light up; and feeling much as if he was gone to some pleasure and had left us to take care of him in his absence. His habits of usefulness to the parish were so like a clergyman that he was continually addressed as one, though a thorough soldier in heart and in tastes; and we have reason now to be thankful he was not really clerical, as our dear home, so full of him, is still spared to us, to keep for my brother, who, poor boy, must just now have met the tidings at Malta.


I shall be very glad to hear any news of the Garland, or to read any Cathedrals when ever you like to send me one. I believe I told you how much my dear Father liked your translation or versification of Death and Sleep. He is one to whom death is a sweet sleep after a life of toil in the service of others
Yours sincerely

C M Yonge


105.Anne Yonge to the Rev. John Yonge


MS Plymouth and West Devon Record Office 308/123/10
Otterbourn

Friday [17 March 1854]


My dear Papa,

I feel greatly obliged to you for writing so often. I fear your leisure will decrease rapidly now, that you are able to resume your out of door occupations, to say nothing of all the Confirmation Children, and also such an increase in the colony within doors. I hope you will not find yourself quite overmatched by the half dozen grandchildren, and obliged to retreat to the top of the House, or to Frances’s Pomerania for a little peace. I think the sight of so many little Boys on the garden walks must surpass that of the twenty or fifty Waterwagtails you once saw there. It must be like a school when they go out to walk, & I suppose you always find one or another ready to accompany you in an agricultural stroll, which I hope you often take on these sunny mornings. The birds sing most perseveringly all day, and the flowers are opening fast in the garden and hedges. Everything looks bright & cheerful, and I am glad that it has not the effect of depressing Aunt Fanny’s spirits but that she is really able to take an interest in and enjoy them. All the same I think she has been feeling less buoyant under her affliction the last few days, & has found it a greater effort to exert herself in her usual employments. Charlotte fancies it is only tire from standing about, and looking over papers & things, in different parts of the house, but I am sure a time of despondency must come, and it seems to me they are still in some degree kept up by the excitement of hearing so very much about Uncle William from all quarters, & the sort of rest and pleasure it is to them to hear his praises & good qualities generally & universally extolled by all classes of people. I think they have a kind of idea that he was never appreciated by the world at large in the degree they always felt he deserved, and all that is so continually being said of him is a kind of solace and satisfaction to them in itself, & like a tribute paid to their superior judgement wh comes better late than not at all. The time I think when they will begin to feel forlorn, will be, when they find themselves left more than usual and more than ever hitherto, perhaps) to themselves. When other people will have ceased to think so much about it, & will apparently be going on their way again, as if this has not happened, & they meanwhile feeling more than ever the want of his companionship.


I cannot wonder at the sort of blank you must feel whenever you think of this place, & I think the thought or inclination just to sit down & write to him as usual, must cross your mind before you recollect that it is of no use. It seems more than ever as if it was impossible to form a just or true estimate of a person’s character while he is still alive, or rather we allow what is disagreeable in outward manner & deportment to exclude from our minds, the constant recollection of what the general tenor of a life may be, now in looking at Uncle William’s, one is struck by the number of good deeds he has performed for the sake of others, in the matter of money alone, it d appear as if he had always had something in hand, entirely apart from any selfish gratification in spending it. Four schools he has at different times built here, besides the Church, Mr Wither’s house, &c & I suppose it was only in the last year that he felt himself free to decorate his own dwelling house. Everything connected wit this place is certainly in the most perfect order, & one looks round for some one eyeing it properly, especially the growing crops & farming operations. The men go on as well as they can & come to Aunt Fanny for consultations & orders, wh she rather likes. Charlotte remarks how much Uncle Wm’s character had softened in the last few years, he took much more delight in beauty & poetry of all sorts, besides being gentler in temper, and also less unparticular in his language. She rejoices that Julian seemed so entirely to have conquered the kind of irritable feeling or approach to sulleness wh a reproof, rather too sharp for the occasion, used in times past to excite & altogether for the last few years they seem to have been as happy as it was possible for people to be.
Dr. Moberly brought tidings yesterday that the Vulcan arrived at Malta on Saturday last, so poor Julian knows the worst now, & I suppose his letter will soon arrive.1
Delia Oldfield writes to Charlotte saying she was sorry only one brother was here at the Funeral, but the fact was ‘neither Uncle James or Alice had the heart to let John Francis know his presence especially wd be objected to, so they discouraged both him & Arthur alike from coming. She adds ‘He would not understand the feeling & is sensitive and affectionate. Such spirits should be spared. & I hope Mr Wither’s message may never reach him’
‘Your affectionate little friend’ must be much obliged I should think for so unexpected a gift. I suppose he is glad he has a few weeks longer on shore. I think it was the Mediation of Prussia that Uncle Seaton chiefly relies on now; he searches papers diligently for some sympton in confirmation of his own views. There was a report on Wednesday in London that the Artillery had been countermanded, wh must have put him in great spirits but I fear it was not true.
Duke will blush when he sees Rd Bogue’s letter come back.2 I think that was the one I urged him to open, saying of course it was only an enquiry or a message for At F & Charlotte, & perhaps he cd save you the trouble of answering it. He must have given it to Aunt Fanny to read, & then he & I forgot all about it probably, for it was not till Aunt Fanny looked in her horde of letters & at last turned it out, that I remembered ought of it. I send it now & it may be torn up.
My love to Alethea and all & believe me your very affectionate daughter

Anne Yonge


I thank Jane very much for her letter about the little Boys; it has amused me exceedingly


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