How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) Part 19

My dear Mrs. Callender,

This is the first opportunity I have had to thank you for your wonderful gift. But, as you know, our arrangements were changed at the last moment and many of our wedding gifts we did not have time to open before going away. So we hope you will forgive us for the delay.

We are now back in town established in our new home and I want you to know how appropriate are those exquisite candlesticks.

Mr. Duncan and I are both deeply grateful for your thought of us.

Yours most sincerely, Dorothy Evans Duncan.

_For a Christmas gift_

134 Bolton Place December 28, 1923.

My dear Alice,

Your handsome Christmas gift is something I have wanted for a long time, but never could get for myself. The bag and its beautiful fittings are much admired. I send my warmest thanks for your thoughtfulness in selecting it.

Very sincerely yours, Mary Scott.

_For a gift received by a girl from a man_

400 Ellsworth Place April 14, 1922.

My dear Mr. Everett,

Thank you for your good wishes and for your lovely gift in remembrance of my birthday. It is a charming book and one which I am very anxious to read.

It was most kind of you to think of me.

Sincerely yours, Katherine Judson.

_For a gift to a child_

798 East 38th Street, December 31, 1923.

My dear Mr. Ba.s.set,

Your wonderful Christmas gift to Barbara came this morning.

She is wholly captivated with her beautiful doll and I am sure would thank you for it if she could talk.

Let me thank you for your kindness in remembering her.

Cordially yours, Dorothy Evans Brewster.

_For a gift to another_

49 Maxwell Avenue, Bayview, Long Island, July 15, 1923.

My dear Mr. Haines,

I appreciate very much the exquisite flowers which you so kindly sent to Mrs. Evans. She is rapidly improving and will soon be about again.

We send our warmest thanks.

Very sincerely yours, John Evans.

_For favor shown to another_

500 Park Avenue, November 25, 1922.

My dear Mrs. Howard,

You were very kind indeed in entertaining my cousin, Mrs.

Douglas, during her stay in your city. I am exceedingly grateful and I hope to find some way of reciprocating.

Very sincerely yours, Katherine G. Evans.

Following are actual letters of thanks written by distinguished persons.

Here is one[9] from George Meredith to Lady Granby, acknowledging the receipt of a reproduction of a portrait by her of Lady Marjorie Manners:

Box Hill, Dorking, Dec. 26, 1899.

Dear Lady Granby:

It is a n.o.ble gift, and bears the charms to make it a constant pleasure with me. I could have wished for the full face of your daughter, giving eyes and the wild sweep of hair, as of a rivule issuing from under low eaves of the woods--so I remember her. You have doubtless other sketches of a maid predestined to be heroine. I could take her for one. All the women and children are heaven's own, and human still, and individual too. Behold me, your most grateful

George Meredith.

[9] From "Letters of George Meredith." Copyright, 1912, by Chas.

Scribner's Sons. By permission of the publishers.

From Lord Alfred Tennyson to Walt Whitman:[10]

Farringford, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Jan'y 15th, 1887.

Dear old man:

I the elder old man have received your Article in the _Critic_, and send you in return my thanks and New Year's greeting on the wings of this east-wind, which, I trust, is blowing softlier and warmlier on your good gray head than here, where it is rocking the elms and ilexes of my Isle of Wight garden.

Yours always, Tennyson.

[10] This and the following four letters are from "With Walt Whitman in Camden," by Horace Traubel. Copyright, 1905, 1906, 1912, 1914, by Doubleday, Page & Co.