[Lady Catharine Long, novelist and religious writer.] Latter part of Autograph Letter Signed [to Mr. Harris], discussing her view of the state of the soul after death, and Mrs Jervoise’s ‘troubled married life’.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Twenty-three lines of text. In fair condition, lightly aged, but with slight creasing at head of leaf. Folded twice. Financial calculations written lengthwise underneath signature, with light smudging. The surviving letter begins, with regard to the soul and survival after death: ‘[...] am continually thankful-feeling for the promise that God, in time, / ‘Will take it down again / And build it all anew.’ (The lines are by Richard Chenevix Trench.) She also notes: ‘I often feel the pleasure of these lines [by Edmund Waller] too: / “The souls dark cottage, battered and decayed, / Lets in the light thro’ chinks that time has made.” / and encroaching infirmities are not without their satisfaction when they come as mile-stones to mark how the journey speeds on to our Home: “a prepared Home for a prepared people.” She now turns to ‘Mrs. Jervoise and her little boy’, who have been staying with her, and are well, despite the trial of ‘parting again so soon with Capt. Jervoise’: ‘She has had but a troubled married life as yet, poor thing!’ She concludes: ‘I hope you are well, and Mrs. Harris, and all your family, & with very kind regards believe me, / My dear Sir / Yours very truly / Catharine Long’.