To Mr. Blackwood,
Windsor.
...It is very disheartening that the writers who talk about all the rubbish that is published should let the best efforts of one’s life fall flat without a word, I don’t understand it, unless it is that under the present system only those who have connections in the critical world get any notice. One must bear it, of course, along with one’s other burdens. I hope at least that this silence will not occasion any loss to you.
I have been stimulated by the sight of a printed letter addressed by Ruskin to his friends, to carry out an idea of reviewing his late brief productions. Shall I do it? The letter itself would throw you into fits of laughter. He is “about to enter on some work which cannot be well done except without interruption,” he says, and therefore begs his friends “to think of me as if actually absent from England, and not to be displeased though I must decline all correspondence”! Shouldn’t you like to follow such a splendid example? It is positively sublime.
I am extremely glad you like the historical papers. With modesty so do I! Poor Chesterfield! — one’s heart aches for the disappointed man.
Windsor.
I was very sorry not to be able to write to you before you left town, but I have been quite ill since I got your letter, and kept in a flutter with the Court ladies who are arranging my visit to the Queen. That great event is to take place this afternoon, the plenipotentiaries on both sides having settled all the preliminaries. I don’t know whether I feel most like the Queen of Sheba or the Pig-faced lady!
St. Andrews,
Sept, 18.
...I have at the present moment two families to support, which is not easy to be done when one has nothing but one’s head and hands. The additional and unexpected burden has made me stagger a little, but I hope it will come round all right....
The pension of £100 granted to Mrs. Oliphant at this time came to her as a most pleasant surprise. She speaks of it in the following letter.
To Mrs. Tulloch.
Windsor,
3rd October.
...I am so unused to pieces of luck that I find myself wondering on what principle this is — or is there no principle (except Him of St. Andrews) but only royal grace and favour involved? I enclose the necessary certificate, which looks formal enough for anything. It is very nice to get a hundred totally unexpected pounds. I don’t think it ever happened to me before. Curiosity, however, mingles with my rapture. Are pensions of this kind generally paid in the lump once a-year? It is very good of the Queen — if she has anything to do with it, which you will say is a doubt of the profanest kind.
To Principal Tulloch,
Windsor.
My dear Principal, — They tell me, or rather Mr. Blackett tells me, that I am indebted to you for £100 a-year. I was quite taken by surprise by the announcement, though Mr. Blackett spoke to me some time since to know whether I would accept such a thing or not, but I thought it was a business to be done by him and not by you. A thousand thanks for your kindness and delicacy, and the way in which you have done this. The money is nothing to the kind care and thoughtfulness, which is worth it a hundred times over. Many thanks. I shall always consider it is a gift from you — that you have given me a house, or, as Mr. Blackett puts it, three thousand pounds in the Funds, which is excessively pleasant; but I am sure you who know me will believe me when I say that I like your kindness and brotherly thought for me much more than I care for the 100 pounds.