'~'I:T;t:J."'.^^'^'-^-^'-"-'-- ^^*^- ^^"^ -f "i- 3i3EXSSrsXX3EaaEBSSX.ummmmi Booksellers ^ CaSt^"Street # BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henrg M. Sage X891 ^ .^.d'i!=\..}'3± nhM... 5474 ••'" • -0 S 2 9 '38 |Ci,5g '""^'^ JUL ? 5 Cornell University Library PR5913.C69 Charlotte Mary Yonge, her life and lette 3 1924 013 577 527 Cornell University Library The original of this bool< is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013577527 CHARLOTTE MARY YONGE yAa //ur// J^f///u- ' Charlotte Mary Yonge Her Life and Letters BY ,e CHRISTABEL COLERIDGE ' In Thy Law is my Delight ILontion MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1903 Aii 7'ights reseifed > n ^.n'^i^u INTRODUCTION The task which I have felt to be so great an honour is now concluded. I have endeavoured to share with others my impressions, my knowledge, of Charlotte Yonge. I have tried as far as I can to show her as she was in herself, so that her fine example may be made known far and wide, rather than to chronicle the small events of her very quiet life in regular order. In one way the task has been easy, for so consistent, so harmonious a life has surely never been described, and rarely been lived. Her daily life, her published writings, her letters to' friends and relatives, are all in accordance with each other. No inconsistent nor disappointing record has, or ever can, leap to light where she was concerned. An immense number of letters have been kindly entrusted to me ; they are of extraordinarily even merit, and they all present the same character from beginning to end. She did not invent letters, she talked on paper. One difficulty has been that there is hardly a date on one of them. The earlier ones to Miss Dyson have been, I conclude by Miss Dyson her- vi CHARLOTTE M. YONGE self, tied up in packets, and dated with the year to which they belong. Had this not been done, the difficulties would indeed have been increased greatly. Miss Yonge did not preserve her friends' letters, nor did she apparently consider her own, if returned to her after the death of her correspondents, of much value. Probably she was too busy ever to set them to rights. Moreover, in writing to intimate friends, she took their knowledge of her subjects for granted, and wrote in an extremely allusive style, mentioning characters in stories, cousins, and school-children all by their Christian names, and often all in the same sentence, so that it is by no means easy to identify them. The cousinhood also has repeated the same Christian names to a perplexing degree, and even intimate knowledge is sometimes at fault in undated letters. Often, too, there are no names at all, " the Bishop," "the baby," "she," "his illness," "her death," and so on, recurring without any clue to the identity of the individuals meant. It need hardly be said that these facts make it difficult to arrange letters so as to interest the public, though the amount of information conveyed to the recipient, and its lively varied character, are always delightful. The piece of Autobiography which she has left be- hind her covers the period of her childhood and early youth ; but in all memoirs the writer has constantly to weigh the respective claims of the friends for 1 INTRODUCTION VI whom no detail can be too small, and the general readers who want a short and vivid picture, and to strike the balance between them. I think I have read all the letters entrusted to me, and I can truly say that for myself there was the greatest interest in them all. Those which I have not been able to reproduce have all helped to form the picture which I have tried to paint. I know too well that it is faint and imperfect. Another hand might have been more skilful — I do not think any other heart could have brought more love to the task. My thanks are due, first, to Miss Helen Yonge for the generous confidence with which she has placed in my hands all the materials at her disposal ; secondly, to Miss Anderson Morshead for valuable help with dates and other details, as well as for letters lent ; to Miss Yonge of Rochdale, Yealmp- ton, for her recollections and letters; to Mrs. Sumner and Mrs. Elgee for their contributions. Also to Miss Helena Heathcote for letters to her family and herself; to Mrs. Lewis Knight for the letters to Dean Butler and his family ; to the Misses Moberly for letters and for the sight of family journals of great value; to Mrs. Romanes, the Lady Frederick Bruce, Mrs. Harcourt Mitchell, Mr. Vere Awdry, Miss Annie Cazenove, and Miss Wilford, for letters lent. I must also thank Mr. Yonge of Puslinch and Mr. Pode of Cornwood for the portraits which they have allowed to be reproduced. Also I must thank Miss Kingsley for permission to print her viii CHARLOTTE M. YONGE father's letter to Mr. John Parker, and to all who by advice, sympathy, or criticism have helped me in my difficult work. One fact as to this I should like to mention. Some years ago I was " approached " on the subject of a life of Miss Yonge by a firm of eminent publishers, and I spoke to her about it. She refused to allow the idea to be entertained during her lifetime, saying that " her mother would not have liked such a thing to be done." " But," she said, " I suppose you will be the one to do it, if it is to be done." And I think that from that time forward she gave me bits of information about her early days with a view to my making subsequent use of them. Therefore this, the first piece of literary work of any consequence which I have ever done without the help of her criticism and sympathy, has been, in every possible way, planned out with a view to satisfying her taste and judgment. For in no other way could I so well show what she herself was like, and I can only hope that she would have found nothing in it displeasing to her. CHRISTABEL COLERIDGE. Cheyne, Torquay, December 15, 1902. — CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE Autobiography ...... i Descent—Family Characteristics—Her Mother's Girlhood—Her Father's Youth—Lord Seaton's Account of Waterloo—Coro- nation of George IV. —Marriage of Parents. CHAPTER H Autobiography . -37 Birth—Dr. Yonge of Plymouth—Description of Otterbourne—Old Church —Old School— Mrs. Yonge's First School—Mrs. Bargus—Early Childhood—Visits to Puslinch —Plymouth and Antony—Her Cousins. CHAPTER HI Autobiography ...... Her Brother's Birth—Death of her Uncle Charles Yonge of Eton Early Recollections—Rickburning in Hants—Games at Puslinch—Visit to London—Sunday School—New Friends Visit to Oxford—Death of her Cousin James—Education Mr. Keble atHursley—New Church at Otterbourne —Prepara- tion for Confirmation. CHAPTER IV Girlhood ....... Extracts from Mothers in Council—The Chdieau de Melville— Character in Youth—Letters to Anne Yonge—Recollections by Miss Mary Yonge. ix — —; CHARLOTTE M. YONGE CHAPTER V PAGE Growing Powers . -144 Friendship with Miss Dyson Magazine for the Young—Langley School—Scenes and Characters, and other Stories—Letters to Miss Dyson. CHAPTER \T The ' Heir of Redclyffe ' and the ' Monthly Packet ' 162 Development of the Story—Suggestions for Magazine for Girls Julian Yonge joining the Army—Friends "going over to Rome "—Mr. Keble's Influence and Support—Letters to Miss Dyson sketching out the Story of the Heir of Redclyffe, and accepting the Editorship of the Monthly Packet. CHAPTER Vn Success . .182 Publication of Heir of Redclyffe—Daisy Chain—Other Books Julian Yonge ordered to the Crimea—Death of her Father Return of her Brother—Letters to Miss Dyson on these Subjects. CHAPTER VHI Mother and Daughter. .196 Dyiievor Terrace and the Young Stepmother—Marriage of the Honourable Jane Colborne—Marriage of Julian Yonge—The Goslings—Letter to Miss Dyson on Bishop Selwyn's visit to Winchester, and the gift to the Mission of the profits of the Heir ofRedclyffe ; to her Mother on Miss Colborne's Marriage to Miss Anne Yonge on Julian's Home - coming and Marriage—Death of Mr. and Mrs. Keble—Description of Elderfield —Death of Mrs. Yonge—Letter on Visit toTorquay. CHAPTER IX Solitude . .231 Journey Abroad—Death of Anne Yonge—Retirement of Mr. Bigg- Wither—The Pillars of the House—Her Views on Church Matters—Letter to Miss Dyson on her Mother's Death ; to Mr. Butler of Wantage ; to Miss Dyson on her Visit to M. Guizot at Val Richer ; to Miss Yonge of Puslinch on Anne Yonge's Death ; to Miss Dyson on Life of Keble, on Bishop Wilberforce, on Death of the Rev. George Harris, on the Death of Mr. Gibbs of Tyntesfield—Notes by Mrs. Elgee on the Parish Life of Otterbourne. ; CONTENTS xi CHAPTER X Missionary Interests . .265 Life of Bishop Patteson—Letter to Miss F. Patteson ; to Miss Dyson—The coming of Miss Gertrude Walter to live at Otter- bourne—Division of Otterbourne and Hursley—Passing away of Friendly National Society Stories—A Helper in the Monthly Packet. CHAPTER XI The Last Years . .280 Sale of Otterbourne House—Death of Mr. Julian Yonge—Album of Signatures—Scholarship—Notes by Mrs. Sumner and Miss Anderson Morshead. CHAPTER XH Letters from Miss Yonge to various Friends .