GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 20 June 1871
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 20 June 1871
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 20 June 1871
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Lee Lewes
Date(s)
- 1871-06-20
Place
Shottermill
Letter Content
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 20 June 1871
MS: Mr. Romilly Southwood Ouvry. Endorsed: Shotter Mill Petersfield. For remitting. Published: Paterson, pp. 150-152.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
June 20. 1871.
Dearest Boy
I was delighted to have your pretty letter 297 this morning, and I hope that when you are as old as I am you will be having the same sort of pleasure. Gertrude's letter, too, reassuring me about her health, was very precious, and I have been thinking of you both with much happiness of late, because you seem to be free from anxieties. I gather from what you say that she is prudently careful not to incur excessive fatigue. But while she has been dreading heat, we have been complaining of cold. One or two rainy days indeed gave us the sense of being in the moist warmth of a hothouse, but generally we have had much wind and a chillness which has made us glad of fires. The parcels were all received safely, and I hope that you will not be tormented with more commissions, for Pater intends to go to the Priory on Friday next, to hunt for the other books he wants. You would rejoice to see how well he looks and how thoroughly he enjoys his life here. He has a new vein of interest in Mathematics, and he no longer feels exhausted after brainwork as he had done for months, nay, years, before we came down here. I too am gaining a little strength, I hope, and am more attached to the place in proportion as I am less ailing and weary.
The pleasure of the working people at the Ballad Concert must have been pretty to witness. Pater says that he has a recollection of some one having written to us about the pianist 298 recommending him to our good offices long ago. But are you sure he is French?
We have several times been to see Mr. Deutsch at Mr. Haweis's, 299 but
I never met the host. He and his wife must be good people to have taken care as they have done of Mr. Deutsch through an illness which the medical men thought likely enough to be fatal. Helping one's fellow-men in that way is much more difficult than any outdoor charities.
I am sorry that our good friend Forman 300 has republished his criticisms, because I think there is more than enough literature of the criticising sort urged upon people's attention by the periodicals. To read much of it seems to me seriously injurious: it accustoms men and women to formulate opinions instead of receiving deep impressions, and to receive deep impressions is the foundation of all true mental power. Even with so admirable a writer, so accomplished and mature a judge as Lowell, whose Essays we have been reading, I feel how worthless his critical articles are compared with his essays on his "Garden acquaintances" and on "Winter." These are like a pure brook (we have endless brooks about us here!) and the others are like Crystal Palace fountains got up for display and making you feel that there is too much of them.
Pater has just read me from the Times that Mr. Grote 301 is dead. A few years more of life would have been more valuable to himself and others than is usual at his age, for he was still working at important things.
I am glad to hear of Gertrude's portrait 302 being taken up again. There was so much that one liked in the conception of the picture, that it was a pity not to have it made just the thing. Pater sends his best love. He is wandering up and down the room just now wishing for the dinner to come in. Our walks in the high bracing air make us hungry, and we try to live as well as the present bareness of the land in the way of vegetables and the small variety of meats at command will allow. We consume most of the eggs to be disposed of in the neighbourhood.
Is not the weather like April? We have just had a great thunderstorm, and now the sun is sending yellow and blue patches through our painted glass on to my paper. I write always on my knees -- that is, with the paper on my knees now, and thus avoid any stooping. I recommend that plan to Gertrude. Good by, dear children.
Always your loving
Mutter.
MS: Mr. Romilly Southwood Ouvry. Endorsed: Shotter Mill Petersfield. For remitting. Published: Paterson, pp. 150-152.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
June 20. 1871.
Dearest Boy
I was delighted to have your pretty letter 297 this morning, and I hope that when you are as old as I am you will be having the same sort of pleasure. Gertrude's letter, too, reassuring me about her health, was very precious, and I have been thinking of you both with much happiness of late, because you seem to be free from anxieties. I gather from what you say that she is prudently careful not to incur excessive fatigue. But while she has been dreading heat, we have been complaining of cold. One or two rainy days indeed gave us the sense of being in the moist warmth of a hothouse, but generally we have had much wind and a chillness which has made us glad of fires. The parcels were all received safely, and I hope that you will not be tormented with more commissions, for Pater intends to go to the Priory on Friday next, to hunt for the other books he wants. You would rejoice to see how well he looks and how thoroughly he enjoys his life here. He has a new vein of interest in Mathematics, and he no longer feels exhausted after brainwork as he had done for months, nay, years, before we came down here. I too am gaining a little strength, I hope, and am more attached to the place in proportion as I am less ailing and weary.
The pleasure of the working people at the Ballad Concert must have been pretty to witness. Pater says that he has a recollection of some one having written to us about the pianist 298 recommending him to our good offices long ago. But are you sure he is French?
We have several times been to see Mr. Deutsch at Mr. Haweis's, 299 but
I never met the host. He and his wife must be good people to have taken care as they have done of Mr. Deutsch through an illness which the medical men thought likely enough to be fatal. Helping one's fellow-men in that way is much more difficult than any outdoor charities.
I am sorry that our good friend Forman 300 has republished his criticisms, because I think there is more than enough literature of the criticising sort urged upon people's attention by the periodicals. To read much of it seems to me seriously injurious: it accustoms men and women to formulate opinions instead of receiving deep impressions, and to receive deep impressions is the foundation of all true mental power. Even with so admirable a writer, so accomplished and mature a judge as Lowell, whose Essays we have been reading, I feel how worthless his critical articles are compared with his essays on his "Garden acquaintances" and on "Winter." These are like a pure brook (we have endless brooks about us here!) and the others are like Crystal Palace fountains got up for display and making you feel that there is too much of them.
Pater has just read me from the Times that Mr. Grote 301 is dead. A few years more of life would have been more valuable to himself and others than is usual at his age, for he was still working at important things.
I am glad to hear of Gertrude's portrait 302 being taken up again. There was so much that one liked in the conception of the picture, that it was a pity not to have it made just the thing. Pater sends his best love. He is wandering up and down the room just now wishing for the dinner to come in. Our walks in the high bracing air make us hungry, and we try to live as well as the present bareness of the land in the way of vegetables and the small variety of meats at command will allow. We consume most of the eggs to be disposed of in the neighbourhood.
Is not the weather like April? We have just had a great thunderstorm, and now the sun is sending yellow and blue patches through our painted glass on to my paper. I write always on my knees -- that is, with the paper on my knees now, and thus avoid any stooping. I recommend that plan to Gertrude. Good by, dear children.
Always your loving
Mutter.
Signature
Mutter.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, 20 June 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/92220