GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, London, [15 June 1852]
Title
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, London, [15 June 1852]
Title
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, London, [15 June 1852]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Bessie Rayner Parkes
Date(s)
- 1852-06-15
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, London, [15 June 1852]
MS: The Countess of Iddesleigh. Envelope: Miss Parkes | Salt Hill Hotel | near Slough. Postmarks: EM | JU 15 | 1852; SLOUGH | JU 16 | 1852. Hitherto unpublished.
Tuesday Morning.
Dear Hamadryad
Your picture of the country was so enchanting to me at breakfast this morning that I forthwith formed the project of setting off by the train to join you and spend a few hours with you among said brooks and corn-fields. But on inquiring into the details of the journey I found so many lions in the way that my sluggard body shrank from carrying my longing spirit whither it would be. So I write instead to bless you for remembering me and to wish you forty -- only about forty -- more birthdays 120 each happier than its predecessor -- which is quite possible with children and grandchildren around you. Life, it is true, is generally a deplorable anti-climax if one lives to old age, but that is because the old have not learned to live a sympathetic life while they were young, and you, who will touch more closely on the Millenium than I, will both get a glimpse and give an example of better things.
I am sadly in need of those same confidences nature is giving you -- for between theatre-going and proof-reading, my spiritual eyes are burning as dim and bleared as gas-lights and crying have made my bodily ones. But I must wait another fortnight, and then go to the glorious sea to get regenerating baptism -- who knows that nature will not give me some confidences too, and send me back so wise and strong that even you, saucy one, will venerate me once more? In haste ever
Your affectionate
Marian Evans.
MS: The Countess of Iddesleigh. Envelope: Miss Parkes | Salt Hill Hotel | near Slough. Postmarks: EM | JU 15 | 1852; SLOUGH | JU 16 | 1852. Hitherto unpublished.
Tuesday Morning.
Dear Hamadryad
Your picture of the country was so enchanting to me at breakfast this morning that I forthwith formed the project of setting off by the train to join you and spend a few hours with you among said brooks and corn-fields. But on inquiring into the details of the journey I found so many lions in the way that my sluggard body shrank from carrying my longing spirit whither it would be. So I write instead to bless you for remembering me and to wish you forty -- only about forty -- more birthdays 120 each happier than its predecessor -- which is quite possible with children and grandchildren around you. Life, it is true, is generally a deplorable anti-climax if one lives to old age, but that is because the old have not learned to live a sympathetic life while they were young, and you, who will touch more closely on the Millenium than I, will both get a glimpse and give an example of better things.
I am sadly in need of those same confidences nature is giving you -- for between theatre-going and proof-reading, my spiritual eyes are burning as dim and bleared as gas-lights and crying have made my bodily ones. But I must wait another fortnight, and then go to the glorious sea to get regenerating baptism -- who knows that nature will not give me some confidences too, and send me back so wise and strong that even you, saucy one, will venerate me once more? In haste ever
Your affectionate
Marian Evans.
Signature
Marian Evans.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, London, [15 June 1852], 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/92037