GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Wandsworth, 19 August 1859
Title
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Wandsworth, 19 August 1859
Title
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Wandsworth, 19 August 1859
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Bessie Rayner Parkes
Date(s)
- 1859-08-19
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Wandsworth, 19 August 1859
Text: Copy lent by the Countess of Iddesleigh. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge, South Fields | Wandsworth. | August 19. 59.
Thanks, dear Friend, for your kind word. I should have been sorry to miss the pressure of your hand from the distance, and to have thought that you felt no joy for me.
"Let no man till his death be called unhappy," 262 says Aurora the eloquent, and everybody whose life confirms that saying may make a helpful thought for those who are still struggling in the Slough of Despond. I suppose we know neither what is in ourselves nor what is in our friends, 263 any more than we know what germs may lie underneath the crop actually on the surface. A whole forest may come, for what we know, when once there has been a good fire burning away, and making fertilizing ashes.
I am glad to think that you are having your turn of the sea breezes. 264 Barbara gave me an idea of your being terribly worried and detained in town when you were much in need of the country. The "Things in General" 265 have given me a pleasant chat with you, the beginning of these two last months. I hope those nice papers will go on with as much spirit as they have begun with -- rather I have no doubt they will, if you don't sacrifice your digestion to this excessive work. That would be bad economy.
It is delightful to hear of a fresh admirer for the "Sea Side Studies." 266 That is a pet book of mine: there is so much happiness condensed in it! Such scrambles over rocks, and peeping into clear pools, and strolls along the pure sands, and fresh air mingling with fresh thoughts.
I have been looking at Barbara's pictures again to-day, and seeing on the way, Henrietta Browne's 267 wonderful things. A delicious picture, that Sister of Mercy and Sick Child, at least to my feeling. But there is a tiny thing -- a little peasant damsel about eight years old, fastening up her little brother's braces, that I covet. I hope you saw them before you left. David Roberts 268 was in the gallery at the time, and I heard him say, "If ever one sees a fine picture now, it is by a woman."
[The rest of the text is lacking.]
Text: Copy lent by the Countess of Iddesleigh. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge, South Fields | Wandsworth. | August 19. 59.
Thanks, dear Friend, for your kind word. I should have been sorry to miss the pressure of your hand from the distance, and to have thought that you felt no joy for me.
"Let no man till his death be called unhappy," 262 says Aurora the eloquent, and everybody whose life confirms that saying may make a helpful thought for those who are still struggling in the Slough of Despond. I suppose we know neither what is in ourselves nor what is in our friends, 263 any more than we know what germs may lie underneath the crop actually on the surface. A whole forest may come, for what we know, when once there has been a good fire burning away, and making fertilizing ashes.
I am glad to think that you are having your turn of the sea breezes. 264 Barbara gave me an idea of your being terribly worried and detained in town when you were much in need of the country. The "Things in General" 265 have given me a pleasant chat with you, the beginning of these two last months. I hope those nice papers will go on with as much spirit as they have begun with -- rather I have no doubt they will, if you don't sacrifice your digestion to this excessive work. That would be bad economy.
It is delightful to hear of a fresh admirer for the "Sea Side Studies." 266 That is a pet book of mine: there is so much happiness condensed in it! Such scrambles over rocks, and peeping into clear pools, and strolls along the pure sands, and fresh air mingling with fresh thoughts.
I have been looking at Barbara's pictures again to-day, and seeing on the way, Henrietta Browne's 267 wonderful things. A delicious picture, that Sister of Mercy and Sick Child, at least to my feeling. But there is a tiny thing -- a little peasant damsel about eight years old, fastening up her little brother's braces, that I covet. I hope you saw them before you left. David Roberts 268 was in the gallery at the time, and I heard him say, "If ever one sees a fine picture now, it is by a woman."
[The rest of the text is lacking.]
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Wandsworth, 19 August 1859, 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/92074