59 



and revises were read and re-read by myself, by Mr. G. 

 MacmiUan, and by Mr. J. Dykes Campbell, not to mention 

 my less experienced daughter, and yet this [error] and another 

 of a date (p. 266—1164 for 1064) escaped us all." * On May 

 25th, he forwarded to me the following extract from a letter 

 from Mrs. J. R. Green :— " I have been quite delighted with 

 your charming book, which I have read from end to end with 

 unflagging pleasure and interest. The charm of the narrative, 

 the_ grace of description, the variety of interest, the extra- 

 ordinary minute and restless observation, the bigness and 

 wonder of the world as seen in this little corner of a little 

 island— I don't know which of these things or a hundred others 

 delighted me most. As a picture of what a clergyman's life 

 and work may be it is really illuminating and stimulating. 

 What a vast world lies around him — or any of us— if we will 

 but walk in at its open gates. For my own little private 

 enjoyment I found much satisfaction in your Appendices— in A 

 and D ; and in B. I was intensely interested in that glimpse of 

 what the ' letting down ' of a town indicates ; and I greatly 

 hope that your suggestion may lead to more work being done in 

 this direction. It would be an invaluable addition to our under- 

 standing of past changes in England. As to your account of 

 the first settlement of the district, you seem to me to have 

 conclusively proved your point. It is a most suggestive instance 

 of the services local knowledge has to render to general history... 

 ......I don't care how many more Appendices you add; for all 



these historical hints are most useful. I don't find, for instance, 

 anything about the mark of which you told me. Perhaps it is 

 to appear elsewhere ? But why not in an Appendix also, even 

 if in some other place too ? " Referring to this letter, Mr. 

 Atkinson says " That such an accomplished historian as she is 

 should take so decided a view as to my theory touching the first 

 settlement of the district (or rather. I should say, considerable 

 portions of it), is to me very gratifying. It was there that I 

 expected attack if anywhere." A few days later he wrote, "In 

 my preface to the second edition I have a few words on the 

 oommonness of Cleveland words and idioms with the words and 

 idioms of other districts." By the 22nd of June following he 

 was able to report " More than one half of the second edition 

 of ' Forty Years ' has been already sold." In fact the book 

 was very well received, and was deserving of the reception 

 accorded to it, though not without defects. For example, the 



v.S}^ was his rule never to print anything %vithout having the proofs read 

 fortL°lthlotg^,"et'r""-^"^ '"' '""^ ""'^'^ Printer'/errorJ: the other 



