about rhododendrons? The soil here is said to suit them wonderfully. I
could not pretend to buy peat for them--but I know hardy sorts will do
in a firm fair soil, and I should like to plant a lilac one--a
crimson--a blush--and a white. I think they would do fairly and
shelter small fry.

_Can I risk it now?_ and how about hardy azaleas--things I love! If
you say--we are too near summer sun for them to get established--I
must wait till Autumn.

How has Mrs. Going stood the biting winds? Very unfavourable for one's
aches and pains?

Tell her I have got one of those rather queer yellow flowers you
condescended to notice!--to bring to her after Easter.

Is it not terrible about Prince Leopold? That poor young wife--and the
Queen! What bitter sorrow she has known; also I do regard the loss as
a great one for the country, he was so enlightened and so desirous of
use in his generation.

Yours, J.H.E.


TO MRS. JELF.


MY DEAREST MARNY,

Thank you, dear, with much love for your Easter card. It is
LOVELY (and Easter cards are not very beautiful as a rule).
It is on a little stand on my knick-knack table--and looks so well!

I send you a few bits from my garden as an Easter Greeting. They are
not much--but we are in a "nip" of bitter N.E. winds--and nothing will
"come out."

Also I rather denuded my patch to send a large box to Undine to make
the Easter wreaths for my Mother's grave. I was really rather proud of
what I managed to scrape together--every bit out of my very own
patch--and consequently of my very own planting!

I've got neuralgia to-day with the wind and a fourteen-miles drive for
luncheon and two sets of callers since I got back!--so I can't write a
letter--but I want you to tell me when you think there's a chance of
your taking a run to see me! I seem to have such lots to say! I have
found another charm (besides red pots) of our market. If one goes
_very early_ on Saturday--one gets such nice old-fashioned flowers,
"roots," and big ones too--very cheap! It's a most fascinating
_ruination by penny-worths_!

Good luck to you, dear, in your fresh settling down in the Heimath
Land.

Mrs. M---- (where we were _lunching_) asked tenderly after my large
young family--as strangers usually do. Then she said, "But you write
so sympathetically of children, and 'A Soldier's Children' is so
real--I thought they MUST be yours." On which I explained the
Dear Queers to her. To whom be love! and to Richard.

Ever, dear, yours lovingly,
J.H.E.


TO MRS. GOING.

Midsummer Day, 1884.


MY DEAR MRS. GOING,

Not a moment till now have I found--to tell you I got home safe and
sound, and that your delicious cream was duly and truly appreciated!

The last of it was merged in an admirable Gooseberry Fool!

The roses suffered by the hot journey--but even the least flourishing
of them received great admiration--from their size--as the skeletons
of saurians make a smaller world stand aghast!!!

This last sentence smacks of Jules Verne! I don't care much for
him--after all. It is rather _bookmaking_.

But I have had a lot of hearty laughs over "the Heroine"! It is very
funny--if not _very_ refined. Some of the situations admirable. There
is something in the girl's calling her father "Wilkinson" all the way
through--quite as comic as anything in _Vice Versâ_--a book which I
never managed to get to the end of.

I hope your wedding went well to-day. My sister's--is postponed till
the 28th--for the convenience of the best man. If _by Thursday_ (you
must be a full two days' post from a Yorkshire country place) the
Master had _one or two_ Bouquet D'Or or other white or yellow roses
not very fully blown--and your handy Meta would wind wet rags about
their stalks and put them in an empty coffee-tin and despatch them by
parcels post to Miss Gatty, Ecclesfield Vicarage, Sheffield, Yorks,
they would be greatly welcomed to eke out the white decorations of my
Mother's grave for the wedding-day. I am wildly watering my Paris
Daisies--and hope to get some wild Ox-eye daisies also--as her name
was Margaret (and her pet name Meta!). I am applying prayers and
slopwater in equal proportions--like any Kelt!--to my Bouquet D'Or and
other white and yellow roses! I shall have some double white
Canterbury Bells, etc.--but there is coming a _lull_ in the flowers,
and they won't re-bloom much till we have rain.

Please give my love to all your party, not forgetting the house dove
and the dog--

I reproach my Rufus with his tricks and talents!

I have had great benefit in a fit of neuralgia from your chili paste.

Yours, dear Mrs. Going,
Sincerely and affectionately,
JULIANA HORATIA EWING.


TO MRS. JELF.

November 3, 1884.


DEAREST MARNY,

Enclosed is "Daddy Darwin"--for Richard!--and two of the Verse Books
for the two dear Queers I had so many luncheons with!

You know I risked printing 20,000 D.D.D. on my own book to cheapen
printing--so you'll be glad to hear that after ordering 10,000 at the
beginning of last week--S.P.C.K. have ordered another 10,000 at the
end of it!! But I've been having _such_ "times" with the printers' and
publishers' dæmons!!

I must not write, however, for I have been ill also!! A throat attack.
We were afraid of diphtheria--but if it were that I should not be
writing to you as you'll guess. There has been another outbreak of it
just round us, and a good many throats of sorts in its train, but Dr.
L---- does not seem to think mine due to much more than
exhaustion--and he seemed to think nursing the dog had not been very
good for me. He says distemper is typhoid fever!

We had a very jolly little visit from Colonel C----. He was at his
_very_ funniest. Mimicked us both to our faces till we yelled again!
As Rex said--"Not a bit altered! The old man! _Would any other play
the bones about his bedroom in his night-shirt?_"

He went off waving farewells and shouting--"We'll _both_ come next
time--and rouse ye well."

Your loving, J.H.E.


Saturday.


DEAREST MARNY,

You have indeed the sympathy of my whole heart!

God bless and prosper "Old Father" on the war-path and bring him home
to his Queers and to you full of honour and glory and interesting
experiences!

I know Mr. Anstruther--he is charming. I cannot say how I think it
softens one's fears if Richard's strength were still a bit unequal to
the strain--to know that he has such a subaltern--adjutant--and C.R.E.
He could not have gone arm-in-arm with better comrades--unless the
Giant had been ready as sick-nurse in case of need!

But I do feel for you, dear--you are very gallant.

I am not fit to write yet--my head _goes_ so--but I will write you
next week about Gordon Browne (a thousand thanks!) and see if _I_
possibly could. Thank you so much.

The drummer's letter is charming. I must copy the bit about tip-toe
for Sir Evelyn Wood! I got the enclosed from him--also from Wady
Halfa--and I wanted you and R---- to hear the weird drum-band drunkard
tale! and see how he likes "Soldier's Children."

Can you kindly return it, dear?

Your most loving, J.H.E.


[_In pencil._]

Where does R---- sail from?

I see by to-day's _Times_ the others have sailed from Dartmouth. My
dear Marny--can't you and R---- come here _en route_ if only for a
night? It _would_ be so nice! It would be such a pleasure to Rex and
me to Godspeed him--and he would feel _quite like Gladstone_ if he had
an ovation at every stopping point on the Flying Dutchman!


TO COLONEL JELF.

November 18, 1884.


DEAR RICHARD,

I wish you _could_ have paused here--I wish that you were even likely
to run through Taunton station in the Flying Dutchman, and that we
could have run down to head a cheer for you!--But Gravesend is handier
for Marny.

She's a real Briton--and it is that "undaunted mettle" that does
"compose" the sinews of "peace with honour" for a country as well as
war!

Indeed I'm glad you have your chance--or make a very respectable
assumption of that _virtus_! and I take leave to be doubly glad that
it is in a fine climate and with good shoulder to shoulder comrades.

Tell Marny, Colonel Y. B---- in a letter about "Daddy Darwin" is very
sympathetic. Another "old standard"--Jelf, he says--is going, and
"Mrs. J---- puts a good face on it."

What will the theatricals and the Institute do?--

"Do without," I suppose! I am a lot better the last two days--and
struggled off to the town to-day to a missionary meeting! It was a
most unusually interesting one about the South American Missions. I
must tell Marny about it.--However--at some tea afterwards, I was
"interviewed" by one or two people--and one lady asked to introduce a
"Major"--whose name I did not catch--as being so devoted to "Soldier's
Children." I created quite a sensation by saying that "Old Father" was
ordered to Bechuanaland--"Oh, how old are the Queers? Are they really
losing Old Father again so soon?"

I feel, by the bye, that it is part of that fatality which besets you
and me, that I should have stereotyped you in printers' ink as _Old_
Father!!!

Good-bye.--Godspeed and Good luck to you.

Your affectionate old friend,
J.H.E.


TO THE REV. J. GOING.

December 3, 1884.


DEAR "HEAD GARDENER,"

I think there is a blessing on all your benevolences to me which
defies ill luck!

After I wrote to Mrs. Going we'd a frost of ten degrees--and I got
neuralgia back--and made a dismal picture in my own mind of your good
things coming to an iron-bound border--and an Under Gardener deeply
_died down_ under eider down and blankets--(even my old labourer being
laid up with sore throat and scroomaticks!--but lo and behold, on
Monday the air became like new milk--I became like a new Under
Gardener--and leave was given to go out. (I am bound to confess that I
don't think rose-planting was medically contemplated!) Fortunately the
border was ready and well-manured--I only had to dig holes in very
soft stuff--but I am very weak, and my stamping powers are never on at
all a Nasmyth Hammer sort of scale--but--good luck again!--Major
Ewing's orderly arrived with papers to sign--a magnificent individual
over six foot--with larger boots than mine and a coal-black
melodramatic moustache! Had the Major been present--I should not have
dared to ask an orderly in full dress and on duty to defile his boots
among Zomerset red-earth, but as I caught him alone I begged his
assistance. He looked down very superbly upon me (swathed in fur and
woollen shawls, and staggering under a full-sized garden fork) with a
twinkle in his eye that prepared me for the least taste of brogue
which kept breaking through his studied fine language--and consented
most affably. I wish you'd seen him--balancing his figure with a
consciousness of maids at the kitchen window, his cane held out,
_toeing_ and _heeling_ your roses into their places!! He assured me he
understood all about it, and he trode them in very nicely!

How good of you to have sent me such a stock,--and the pansies I
wanted. The flower of that lovely mauve and purple one is on the table
by me now. _One_ (only one) of your other roses died--the second
Gloire near the front door--so when I saw it was hopeless I had that
border "picked" up--a very rockery of rubbish came out--good stuff was
put in, and one of the Souvenirs de Malmaison is now comfortably
established there I hope. This wet weather keeps me a prisoner
now--but it is good luck for the roses to settle in. I have had some
nice scraps and remains of flowers to cheer me indoors--there are one
or two late rosebuds yet!

They are such a pleasure to me--and I am indeed grateful to you for
all you have done for my garden! Some of those roses I bought have
thrown up hugely long shoots. They were all small plants as you
know--so I cut none of them in the autumn. I suppose in the spring I
had better cut off these long shoots from the bushes in the open
border away from the hedge?

I must not write more--only my thanks afresh. With our best regards.

I am very gratefully yours,
J.H.E.


[_Written with a typewriter._]

TO MRS. JELF.

_Taunton._ December 23, 1884.


DEAREST MARNY,

My right arm is disabled with neuralgia, and Rex is working one of his
most delightful toys for me. He says I brought my afflictions on
myself by writing too prolix letters several hours a day. I've got
very much behindhand, or you'd have heard from me before. I must try
and be highly condensed. Gordon Browne has done some wonderful
drawings for "Lætus." Rex was wild over a "Death or Glory" Lancer, and
I think he (the Lancer) and a Highlander would touch even Aunty's
heart. They will rank among her largest exceptions. I can't do _any_
Xmas cards this year; I can neither go out nor write. I hoped to have
sent you a little Xmas box, of a pair of old brass candlesticks such
as your soul desireth. D. and I made an expedition to the very
broker's ten days ago, but when I saw the dingy shop choke-full of
newly-arrived dirty furniture, and remembered that these streets are
reeking with small-pox--as it refuses to "leave us at present"--I
thought I should be foolish to go in. D. knows of a pair in
Ecclesfield, and I have commissioned her to annex them if possible;
but they can't quite arrive in time. In case I don't manage to write
Xmas greetings to Aunty and Madre, give them my dear love; and the
same to yourself and the Queers. I am proud to tell you that I have
persuaded my Admiral to put the Soldiers' Institute on his collecting
book of Army and Navy Charities; and when I started it with a small
subscription he immediately added the same.

Dear Xmas wishes to you all, and a Happy New Year to Richard also from
us both.

Your loving, J.H.E.


[_In typewriting._]

TO MISS K. FARRANT.

_Taunton._ January 4, 1885.


DEAREST KITTY,

I should indeed not have been silent at this season if I had not been
ill, and I should have got Rex to print me a note before now, but I
kept hoping to be able to write myself, and I rather thought that you
would hear that I was laid up, either from D. or M. I have not been
very well for some time more than yourself, and I am afraid the root
of this breakdown has been overwork. But the weather has been very
sunless and wretched, and I have had a fortnight in bed with bad,
periodic neuralgia, which has particularly disabled my right arm and
head--two important matters in letter-writing. It put an entire stop
to my Christmas greetings. I made a little effort for the nephews one
day, and had a terrible night afterwards. The lovely blue (china) Dog,
who reminds me of an old but incomprehensible Yorkshire saying, "to
blush like a blue dog in a dark entry,"--which is what _I_ do when I
think that I have not yet said "thank you" for him--is most
delightful. You know how I love a bit of colour, and a quaint shape.
He arrived with one foot off, but I can easily stick it on. Thank you
so much. I must not say more to-day, except to hope you'll feel a
little stronger when we see more of the sun; and, thanking you and
Francie for your cards--(I was greatly delighted to see my friends the
queer fungi again)--and with love to your Mother--who I hope is
getting fairly through the winter.

Yours gratefully and affectionately,
J.H. EWING.


TO MRS. JELF.

January 22, 1885.


DEAREST M.,

I am _so_ pleased you like the brazen candlesticks.

I have long wanted to tell you how _lovely_ I thought all your Xmas
cards. Auntie's snow scene was exquisite--and your Angels have adorned
my sick-room for nearly a month! Most beautiful.

I know you'll be glad I had my first "decent" night last night--since
December 18!--No very lengthy vigils and no pain to _speak_ of. No
pain to growl about to-day. A great advance.

Indeed, dear--I should not only be glad but _grateful_ to go to you by
and by for a short _fillip_. Dr. L---- would have sent me away now if
weather, etc. were fit--or I could move.

After desperate struggles--made very hard by illness--I hope to see
"Lætus" in May at _one shilling_. Gordon Browne doing well. Do you
object to the ending of "Lætus"--to Lady Jane having another son,
etc.? Do the Farrants? My dear love to them. This bitter--sunless,
lifeless weather must have tried Kitty very much.

*       *       *       *       *

Your loving,
J.H.E.


[_In typewriting._]

_Taunton._ February 16, 1885.


MY DEAREST MARNY,

Rex is "typing" for me, but my own mouth must thank you for your
goodness, for being so ready to take me in. By and by I shall indeed
be grateful to go to you. But this is not likely to be for some weeks
to come. You can't imagine what a Greenwich pensioner I am. I told my
doctor this morning that he'd better send me up a wood square with
four wheels, like those beggars in London who have no limbs; for both
my legs and my right arm were _hors de combat_, and to-day he has
found an inflamed vein in my left, so _that_ has gone into
fomentations too.

But in spite of all this I feel better, and do hope I shall soon be up
and about. But he says the risk of these veins would be likely to come
if I over-exerted myself, so--anxious as I am to get to purer air, I
don't think it would do to move until my legs are more fit. May I
write again and tell you when I am fit for Aldershot? Dr. L---- highly
approves of the air of it, but at present he thinks lying in bed the
only safe course. Do thank dear Aunty next time you write to her for
her goodness, and tell her that in my present state I should make her
seem quite spry and active. A thousand thanks for the _Pall Mall_. I
do _not_ neglect one word of what you say; but I need hardly say that
I can't work at present.

The illustrations for "Lætus" are going on very well. I hope to send
Richard a copy for perusal on the homeward voyage.

I daren't write about Gordon. Certainly not the least strange part of
his wondrous career is this mystery which persists in clouding his
close. I feel as if he would be like Enoch or Moses--that we shall never
be permitted to know more than that--having walked with GOD--he "was
not--for GOD took him," and that his sepulchre no man shall know.

Your loving,
J.H.E.




_The present Series of Mrs. Ewing's Works is the only authorized,
complete, and uniform Edition published._

_It will consist of 18 volumes, Small Crown 8vo, at 2s. 6d. per vol.,
issued, as far as possible, in chronological order, and these will
appear at the rate of two volumes every two months, so that the Series
will be completed within 18 months. The device of the cover was
specially designed by a Friend of Mrs. Ewing._

_The following is a list of the books included in the Series_--


1. MELCHIOR'S DREAM, AND OTHER TALES,

2. MRS. OVERTHEWAY'S REMEMBRANCES.

3. OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY TALES.

4. A FLAT IRON FOR A FARTHING.

5. THE BROWNIES, AND OTHER TALES.

6. SIX TO SIXTEEN.

7. LOB LIE-BY-THE-FIRE, AND OTHER TALES.

8. JAN OF THE WINDMILL.

9. VERSES FOR CHILDREN, AND SONGS.

10. THE PEACE EGG--A CHRISTMAS MUMMING PLAY--HINTS FOR PRIVATE
THEATRICALS, &c.

11. A GREAT EMERGENCY, AND OTHER TALES.

12. BROTHERS OF PITY, AND OTHER TALES OF BEASTS AND MEN.

13. WE AND THE WORLD, Part I.

14. WE AND THE WORLD, Part II.

15. JACKANAPES--DADDY DARWIN'S DOVE-COTE--THE STORY OF A SHORT LIFE.

16. MARY'S MEADOW, AND OTHER TALES OF FIELDS AND FLOWERS.

17. MISCELLANEA, including The Mystery of the Bloody Hand--Wonder
Stones--Tales of the Khoja, and other translations.

18. JULIANA HORATIA EWING AND HER BOOKS, with a selection from Mrs.
Ewing's Letters.


S.P.C.K., NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON, W.C.