TO MISS JANE BALFOUR This correspondent, the long-lived spinster among the Balfour sisters (died 1907, aged 91) and the well-beloved "auntie" of a numerous clan of nephews and nieces, is the subject of the set of verses, _Auntie's Skirts_, in the _Child's Garden_. She had been reading _Travels with a Donkey_ on its publication. [_Swanston, June 1879._] MY DEAR AUNTIE,--If you could only think a little less of me and others, and a great deal more of your delightful self, you would be as nearly perfect as there is any need to be. I think I have travelled with donkeys all my life; and the experience of this book could be nothing new to me. But if ever I knew a real donkey, I believe it is yourself. You are so eager to think well of everybody else (except when you are angry on account of some third person) that I do not believe you have ever left yourself time to think properly of yourself. You never understand when other people are unworthy, nor when you yourself are worthy in the highest degree. Oblige us all by having a guid conceit o' yoursel and despising in the future the whole crowd, including your affectionate nephew, R. L. S. TO EDMUND GOSSE This letter is contemporary with the much-debated Cornhill essay _On some Aspects of Burns_, afterwards published in _Familiar Studies of Men and Books_. "Meredith's story" is probably the _Tragic Comedians_. _Swanston, July 24, 1879._ MY DEAR GOSSE,--I have greatly enjoyed your article, which seems to me handsome in tone, and written like a fine old English gentleman. But is there not a hitch in the sentence at foot of page 153? I get lost in it.