GE and GHL to John Blackwood, Florence, 5 May 1861
Title
GE and GHL to John Blackwood, Florence, 5 May 1861
Title
GE and GHL to John Blackwood, Florence, 5 May 1861
Sender
George Eliot, George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1861-05-05
Place
Florence
Letter Content
GE and GHL to John Blackwood, Florence, 5 May 1861
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 300-301.
Florence, May 5th 1861.
My dear Sir
Your pleasant news 754 had been ripening at the Post Office several days before we enjoyed the receipt of it, for our journey lasted us longer than we expected, and we didn't reach this place till yesterday evening. We have come by Vetturino from Toulon -- the most delightful (and the most expensive) 755 journey we have ever had. I dare say you know the Corniche: if not, do know it some time, and bring Mrs. Blackwood that way into Italy. Meanwhile I am glad to think that you are having a less fatiguing change -- to places where you can "carry the comforts o' the Saut Market" 756 with you, which is not quite the case with travellers along the Mediterranean coast. Good unsophisticated beef and mutton are not yet among the English fashions abundantly introduced into foreign hotels: English mustard comes almost everywhere, but it is unseasonably before English meat, instead of after it, according to the mustardy proverb. I hope I shall soon hear that you are thoroughly set up by fresh air and fresh circumstances, along with pleasant companionship.
We are not personally brilliant today -- both having colds. Florence happens to be wet and chill today, but I dare say we and the weather shall be as charming as usual to-morrow. I say, "as usual" in reference to the whole fortnight during which we have been travelling. Except a thunderstorm which gave a grand variety to the mountains, and a little gentle rain the first day from Toulon, which made the green corn all the fresher, we have had unbroken sunshine without heat and without dust. I suppose this season and late autumn must be the perfect moments for taking this supremely beautiful journey. We must be for ever ashamed of ourselves if we don't work the better for it.
It was very good of you to write to me in the midst of your hurry that I might have good news to greet me. It really did lighten our weariness, and make the noisy streets that prevented sleep, more endurable. I was amused with your detail about Professor Aytoun's sovereigns. There can be no great painting of misers under the present system of paper money -- cheques bills scrip and the like: nobody can handle that dull property as men handled the glittering gold.
Mr. Lewes will add his word, so I shall depend on him to say all the essential things -- about addresses and such matters.
Ever yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
[In GHL's hand.]
With a proper sense of the '91eternal fitness'92 of things, 757 the graceful and ornamental part of the correspondence is taken by the wife, the prosaic business left to the husband; and very little that is. First, as to addresses, you had better for the present write to poste restante, for although we are now at the Hotel de l'Europe vaunted by Murray, I do not think we shall remain here more than another day. Next as to work, I have brought a big erudite book on the ancient lake inhabitants, which I have been reading during the brief periods of leisure not devoted to seeing and enjoying -- If it will furnish an interesting paper, which I think it will, I shall set about it very quickly and perhaps let you have it in time for this next number, though that is problematical. With regard to the other work all the time here will be given to study.
Curiously enough the first book that caught my eye at Genoa, not in an Italian bookshop, was the Physiology; and one of the first things which caught my eye at Vidauban (lovely Vidauban, where we were forced to stay because there were no post horses to be had) was the contemptible smal[l]ness of French tadpoles -- quite Frenchmen in stature beside the noble Britons I had left in Blandford Square!
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 300-301.
Florence, May 5th 1861.
My dear Sir
Your pleasant news 754 had been ripening at the Post Office several days before we enjoyed the receipt of it, for our journey lasted us longer than we expected, and we didn't reach this place till yesterday evening. We have come by Vetturino from Toulon -- the most delightful (and the most expensive) 755 journey we have ever had. I dare say you know the Corniche: if not, do know it some time, and bring Mrs. Blackwood that way into Italy. Meanwhile I am glad to think that you are having a less fatiguing change -- to places where you can "carry the comforts o' the Saut Market" 756 with you, which is not quite the case with travellers along the Mediterranean coast. Good unsophisticated beef and mutton are not yet among the English fashions abundantly introduced into foreign hotels: English mustard comes almost everywhere, but it is unseasonably before English meat, instead of after it, according to the mustardy proverb. I hope I shall soon hear that you are thoroughly set up by fresh air and fresh circumstances, along with pleasant companionship.
We are not personally brilliant today -- both having colds. Florence happens to be wet and chill today, but I dare say we and the weather shall be as charming as usual to-morrow. I say, "as usual" in reference to the whole fortnight during which we have been travelling. Except a thunderstorm which gave a grand variety to the mountains, and a little gentle rain the first day from Toulon, which made the green corn all the fresher, we have had unbroken sunshine without heat and without dust. I suppose this season and late autumn must be the perfect moments for taking this supremely beautiful journey. We must be for ever ashamed of ourselves if we don't work the better for it.
It was very good of you to write to me in the midst of your hurry that I might have good news to greet me. It really did lighten our weariness, and make the noisy streets that prevented sleep, more endurable. I was amused with your detail about Professor Aytoun's sovereigns. There can be no great painting of misers under the present system of paper money -- cheques bills scrip and the like: nobody can handle that dull property as men handled the glittering gold.
Mr. Lewes will add his word, so I shall depend on him to say all the essential things -- about addresses and such matters.
Ever yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
[In GHL's hand.]
With a proper sense of the '91eternal fitness'92 of things, 757 the graceful and ornamental part of the correspondence is taken by the wife, the prosaic business left to the husband; and very little that is. First, as to addresses, you had better for the present write to poste restante, for although we are now at the Hotel de l'Europe vaunted by Murray, I do not think we shall remain here more than another day. Next as to work, I have brought a big erudite book on the ancient lake inhabitants, which I have been reading during the brief periods of leisure not devoted to seeing and enjoying -- If it will furnish an interesting paper, which I think it will, I shall set about it very quickly and perhaps let you have it in time for this next number, though that is problematical. With regard to the other work all the time here will be given to study.
Curiously enough the first book that caught my eye at Genoa, not in an Italian bookshop, was the Physiology; and one of the first things which caught my eye at Vidauban (lovely Vidauban, where we were forced to stay because there were no post horses to be had) was the contemptible smal[l]ness of French tadpoles -- quite Frenchmen in stature beside the noble Britons I had left in Blandford Square!
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, GE and GHL to John Blackwood, Florence, 5 May 1861, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91859