Autograph letter signed : Manchester, to "Dear Sir", 1869 November 6.

Declining a request that she "write or select a composition useful as a reading course for children of 12 years old"; stating that, while she takes an active interest in education, her inclination would be to "eschew anything especially written for" the intended audience, but to place before them studies from the best English classical writers"; expressing her low opinion of the great number of "worthless" children's books available and outlining the advantage of "teaching them to enjoy really good composition" so that they should "reject what is faulty in the literature that claims their attention"; and concludes with her fundamental disapproval of girl's schools; i.e. "As for girl's schools, they are institutions which I hope some day to see banished from the face of the earth. The class in a National School should be assorted according to the subject taught, and the capacity of the pupils & boys and girls should learn together."