GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 10 July [1871]
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 10 July [1871]
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 10 July [1871]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Lee Lewes
Date(s)
- 1871-07-10
Place
Shottermill
Letter Content
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 10 July [1871]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1871. Published: Paterson, pp. 154-156.
Shottermill | July 10.
Dearest Boy
I should have written you a word before, but that I have had an attack of headache from which I am not yet quite delivered. When one has been unable to do anything for three days, life seems made up of dropt stitches.
I was charmed with your description of the F'eate at Hammersmith: it is so thoroughly satisfactory to see many people concurring to help Octavia. 313 That is just as it should be.
I think Pater has not told you that since we gave up going to Scotland we have tried to keep this cottage till the end of August but have not succeeded, Mrs. Gilchrist having made arrangements with George Smith, 314 water-colour artist, who had the place last year, to come again on our departure at the beginning of August, and said Mr. Smith very reasonably objects to inconvenience himself for our sakes, though enthusiastic Mrs. Gilchrist seemed to expect it of him. So we shall be unhoused on the 2d, and though another place near has presented itself as possible for us, Pater begins to prefer the idea of our going to Harrogate for a fortnight, seeing that I am not very flourishing, and that the waters there did me great good last year. In that case we should want to be at home for a night or so, and I am wondering whether the house will ever be habitable again. But at present, perhaps Pater has not absolutely decided on our movements.
We have had one visitor since the Blackwoods in May -- Mr. Clark 315 of Cambridge, who had been to Tennyson's and could not resist the temptation to come to us when he found that we were only a quarter of an hour from the railway station. But he had been so discreet as not to say that we were here to Tennyson, and we begged him to tell nobody that he had seen us. However, today Mr. and Mrs. Call are coming for an hour, on their way to Havant where they are going to dine, and I shall be glad to see them, because they are to go to Italy for a year or more this autumn. -- Tennyson's house 316 stands on one side of a great ridge called Blackdown, which divides two quite different aspects of country. He is on the side opposite to ours and has a vast plain stretching before him, whereas on our side there is perpetual variety of little hill and little valley. Both are beautiful.
If the situation were convenient, this is just the kind of country I should like to come to as a second home; but one cannot get even a screw for a door handle nearer than Guildford! And one has to scour the country and offer up petitions in order to get butter, fowls, and vegetables. It is a favour when you can get milk daily by sending for it! -- Pater has just brought me in a note from Mrs. Simmons who lives in a very pretty house opposite to us, offering it us for August. So I shall keep my note until we have decided.
[By GHL in pencil:] No dec[isio]n about the Cottage.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1871. Published: Paterson, pp. 154-156.
Shottermill | July 10.
Dearest Boy
I should have written you a word before, but that I have had an attack of headache from which I am not yet quite delivered. When one has been unable to do anything for three days, life seems made up of dropt stitches.
I was charmed with your description of the F'eate at Hammersmith: it is so thoroughly satisfactory to see many people concurring to help Octavia. 313 That is just as it should be.
I think Pater has not told you that since we gave up going to Scotland we have tried to keep this cottage till the end of August but have not succeeded, Mrs. Gilchrist having made arrangements with George Smith, 314 water-colour artist, who had the place last year, to come again on our departure at the beginning of August, and said Mr. Smith very reasonably objects to inconvenience himself for our sakes, though enthusiastic Mrs. Gilchrist seemed to expect it of him. So we shall be unhoused on the 2d, and though another place near has presented itself as possible for us, Pater begins to prefer the idea of our going to Harrogate for a fortnight, seeing that I am not very flourishing, and that the waters there did me great good last year. In that case we should want to be at home for a night or so, and I am wondering whether the house will ever be habitable again. But at present, perhaps Pater has not absolutely decided on our movements.
We have had one visitor since the Blackwoods in May -- Mr. Clark 315 of Cambridge, who had been to Tennyson's and could not resist the temptation to come to us when he found that we were only a quarter of an hour from the railway station. But he had been so discreet as not to say that we were here to Tennyson, and we begged him to tell nobody that he had seen us. However, today Mr. and Mrs. Call are coming for an hour, on their way to Havant where they are going to dine, and I shall be glad to see them, because they are to go to Italy for a year or more this autumn. -- Tennyson's house 316 stands on one side of a great ridge called Blackdown, which divides two quite different aspects of country. He is on the side opposite to ours and has a vast plain stretching before him, whereas on our side there is perpetual variety of little hill and little valley. Both are beautiful.
If the situation were convenient, this is just the kind of country I should like to come to as a second home; but one cannot get even a screw for a door handle nearer than Guildford! And one has to scour the country and offer up petitions in order to get butter, fowls, and vegetables. It is a favour when you can get milk daily by sending for it! -- Pater has just brought me in a note from Mrs. Simmons who lives in a very pretty house opposite to us, offering it us for August. So I shall keep my note until we have decided.
[By GHL in pencil:] No dec[isio]n about the Cottage.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 10 July [1871], 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/92219