"DEAR SIR,--Some few years back I heard that you came to England to look up some of your relations. I so much regret that I did not have the pleasure of making your acquaintance, as we are the old family of Tildens of Ifield Court in the parish of Northfleet. "I have always heard my husband say that there were three branches of the Tilden family: one lived at Milsted (Sir John Tylden), they altered the spelling of the name; one branch went to America, and the other to Ifield Court. My husband was the fourth John Tilden who had lived at the old place; we were married in 1838, and I lived there with him thirty-four years, as he died in 1872 at the age of seventy-six. He was twenty years older than me; we have three children--my eldest son John still has Ifield Court. My daughter Lucy married, in 1868, Captain Miller, of the Royal Engineers; he died of typhoid fever at Gibraltar in 1876, leaving his wife and four children--three girls and one boy; they are now living with me. William, my youngest son, is a major in the Sixtieth Rifles; he has just engaged himself to be married to a Miss Bell, a lady of good family and connections. "If you should visit England again, I hope I may have the opportunity of meeting you. I have long wished to write to you, but did not know where to address you. This summer I was spending a few weeks at Thonne in Switzerland, and an American gentleman and his wife were staying at the hotel. They were struck with my name and asked if we were related to you. I asked if he would give me your address, which he did, and I made up my mind to write to you as soon as I returned home. "There is a church not far from here called Lynne, where Canon Jenkins took me to see where some of our ancestors were buried, spelling their names as we do, _Tilden_. My dear husband was very proud of his family; his brothers are all dead; he has only three sisters living; there _were_ twelve in the family. I hope you will pardon my writing to you, but I feel you would like to know something of the Ifield Court, Tildens. "My daughter unites with me in kind regards to her kinsman, and believe me, "My dear sir, yours very truly, "MARY TILDEN." TILDEN TO MRS. LOWELL "GREYSTONE, YONKERS, N. Y., _November 15, 1882_. "DEAR MRS. LOWELL,--I received, on Saturday evening, your letter dated November 3d, and take the first time at my command to answer it. "You do not overestimate the influx of communications which you are pleased to term 'begging letters.' They count by thousands. It is only in rare and exceptional cases that they can be answered. To comply with their requests would overmatch the journalistic exaggerations of the income and fortune which, in the mind of each applicant, is compared with a single want, presented as most meritorious, and as very inconsiderable in amount.