To Louisa Harriet Eyre Matcham

192.To Louisa Harriet Eyre Matcham

Decr 2nd1858

I am afraid I can throw no light upon the question. We had it some time ago, very probably from the same quarter, and I kept it yesterday to shew to the Moberlys who were likely to have had it at the same time to see whether they could remember any answer but none of us could, and we could only come to the satisfactory conclusion that it was one of those provoking delusions now and then sent out to puzzle the world without an author. We tried hard to make it into Tax, but it would not do

C M Yonge

193.To Caroline Elizabeth Cooke-Trench²

MS location unknown. Printed in Coleridge, Life pp. 295-6
Otterbourne, Winchester

February 16, 1859

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 attack of bronchitis, just at Christmas. Mr. Sainsbury was in great alarm about her at the very time of poor Keenie's death, so that Mrs. Keble could not have left her even if Mr. Keble had been able to get away.³ I have not seen them since Tom Keble came, for it has been so wet that the road was a perfect river, and Mr. Wither had to wade in going to see a horse that Mr. Payne lamed and left at Hursley to recover. Lady Heathcote was here on Monday to wish good­bye, so I fear it will be long before we see any of your people again, but she was so kind as to ask me to make a short visit in London after Easter, so I shall be able to write to you from thence. Some of the Moberlys spent the day with us yesterday; it is quite sad to see how grave Emily has grown, she seems to me more altered than any of them, and to have turned at once from a very fine child into a very thoughtful woman.¹ I suppose this will shade away in time, as the house recovers its tone, but it is very remarkable now. Yes, Friarswood is mine, and Paul Blackthorn is a portrait of a poor boy who came here at the time of the last Confirmation out of the Andover Union. All about him and the village boys, up to the end of the chapter you will have in March, is quite true, except that the farmer is worse than William Smith was. The further part is, I am sorry to say, all embellishment, for the real lad enlisted, and we knew no more about him. Alfred was a boy in Devonshire to whom Jane Moore used to go constantly, and who thought of her as very like a sunbeam. He used to look so beautifully fair and pale, with such blue eyes, and his feelings about his younger brother were much what I tried to show them. I hope you will come in Jane’s way, I think she is the most winning person I ever knew, except perhaps her mother, and she has such a depth of unselfish good­ness and serious thought as one would hardly suspect from her very droll manner and way of talking. I was so glad to like Captain Moore so much, for I had intended to think no one good enough for Jane. I am glad you liked the white horse. We have What will He do with it? in hand now.²
Your affectionate

C. M. Yonge.

194.To Anne Sturges Bourne

MS Hampshire Record Office: Sturges Bourne Collection: 9M55 F55 1p2
Otterbourn

Ash Wednesday [9 March 1859]

My dear Miss Bourne,

Our difficulties are so far lessened that the married servant I mentioned once to you can come for a few months to teach both house and kitchen work, so I do not think we shall take a laundress unless some very splendid ready made article should turn up, as we do not want to have too many people about, & hope to keep Mrs Attwood till after June, for the sake of experience & sick cookery.

Frances is very well & strong so I daresay it will go very well In the mean time there are great alterations, as the march of luxury prevents modern babies from living as Julian and I did.³
I am afraid the dirt was the part that was literally true of the Paul here - in fact, with Wm Smith always abusing him, & putting forward the shoe transaction, it was not till quite the end of his stay that Mr Wither perceived how good a boy he was, rather from the reports of the other boys than what he saw of him, and the washing & dressing were exactly the main facts.
I suppose it was so with Mr Cope - and I don’t think either that Mr Cope any power with Lady Jane - who held him as elderly ladies often do youthful curates - especially considering little Miss Jane.
I always feel it fair to say that I have treated poor ‘Farmer Willum’, as the people call him rather as Miss Brontë did the Yorkshire school, he was hard, but not so hard and the eggs, though truly made the accusation, were the excuse in spring not autumn. Another thing made it impossible to help him, his odd proud independence which spurned gifts & even a supper at Mr Wither’s. I should not have believed in him if he had been in a book. East London is by a clergyman’s daughter there, real experiences.¹ Miss Taylor has been ill and I fear will not do much more though she hopes to finish the oak.² I send a trilobite explained by a lecture at Winchester College, & an edifying monster he was - if ever I do the crustacea it will be nice to get him, I am glad the Salsburgs do not come only 1 year apart. Remember us if a nurse turns up - we are afraid of a great lady.
Yours sincerely

C M Yonge

195.To Ann Maria Carter Smith

MS Westcountry Studies Library, Exeter/ 1858/2
Otterbourne, Winchester.

March 28th 1858 [for 1859?]

My dear Miss Smith,

I meant to have written to you on Saturday, but was hindered. On the whole I think I should say that your case was more disappointing and vexatious than anything else, and that Mr Mozley though his conduct is decidedly provoking did not exactly deserve such strong censure.

You see his view of the case is that if a book do not answer it is no particular pleasure to anyone, and that it is no real injury to retract such a bargain, he having found on enquiry that the chances are against success in his judgement. You know it is a hazard on his part of not less than £100, so that he surely ought to be allowed to use his judgement in the matter. I do not mean that he ought not very decidedly to have weighed the question more fully, and have made his enquiries before his acceptance, and that it would have been pleasanter dealing had he done so, and I am also quite sure that your stories are of a superior order, and that publishers cannot always judge wisely of chances of success, but I now think it would be wiser to hold the tales back a little, till something else may have made your name, than to force on the publication, with the publisher averse to it, & only held by an appeal to his honor. It is very vexatious, and I am very sorry it has so happened, for I think the stories would have been very nice to give or lend, and you know how fond of them I am. But I think Bell and Daldy being of Mozleys’ opinion shews that there must be some foundation for it, and that it had better be regarded. I shall be delighted to read from your new story , and if you can send it at once, this is a favorable week for the reading, as my mother and I chance to be alone together. I should be able better to write to Mr Parker after having done so. East London is very popular, and we are all delighted with the Wynnes, who make us quite eager after the Churchman’s Companion, as we have not been for a long time. Henrietta’s bright idleness telling more than poor Barbara’s strong efficiency is excellent - so too is the mother, but I can’t make out whether Gordon is to punish her for spoiling him, or be brought right by the atmosphere of good, as naughty youngests so often are. I have great hopes too of Elizabeth.
I don’t think your 400 pages would be an objection to the Packet - but the long stories it is engaged to would be one to you, as they would keep you waiting till 1861. But at any rate I shall have the present pleasure of it!
yours sincerely

C M Yonge

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