GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Wandsworth, 30 July 1859
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Wandsworth, 30 July 1859
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Wandsworth, 30 July 1859
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Lee Lewes
Date(s)
- 1859-07-30
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Wandsworth, 30 July 1859
MS: Lieutenant Commander Arthur Ouvry. Text: Paterson, pp. 70-72, dated 13 July 1859. Extracts published: Cross, II, 125-127.
Holly Lodge, | Wandsworth, | July 30, 1859.
Dear Charlie,
I look forward to playing duets with you as one of my future pleasures, and if I am able to go on working, I hope we shall afford to have a fine grand piano. I have none of Mozart's Symphonies, 236 so that you can be guided in your choice of them entirely by your own tastes. I know Beethoven's Sonata in E flat well. It is a very charming one, and I shall like to hear you play it. That is one of my luxuries -- to sit still and hear some one playing my favourite music; so that you may be sure you will find willing ears to listen to the fruits of your industrious practising.
There are ladies in the world, not a few, who play the violin, 237 and I wish I were one of them, for then we could play together sonatas for the piano and violin which make a charming combination. The violin gives that keen edge of tone which the piano wants.
I like to know that you were gratified by getting a watch 238 so much sooner than you expected. It was the greater satisfaction to me to send it you because you had earned it by making good use of these precious years at Hofwyl. It is a great comfort to your father and me to think of that, for we, with our grave old heads, cannot help talking very often of the need our boys will have for all sorts of good qualities and habits in making their way through this difficult life. It is a world, you perceive, in which crossbows will be launisch sometimes and frustrate the skill of excellent marksmen -- how much more of lazy bunglers? 239
The first volume of the "Physiology of Common Life" is just published and it is a great pleasure to see so much of your father's hard work successfully finished. He has been giving a great deal of labour 240 to the numbers on the Physiology of the Nervous System, which are to appear in the course of two or three months, and he has enjoyed the labour in spite of the drawback of imperfect health which obliges him very often to leave the desk with a hot and aching head. It is quite my worst trouble that he has so much of this discomfort to bear; and we must all try and make everything else as pleasant to him as we can, to make up for it. Tell Thornton he shall have the book he asks for -- if possible -- I mean the book of moths and butterflies; and tell Bertie I expect to hear about the wonderful things he has done with his pocket-knife. Tell him he is equipped well enough to become king of a desert island with that pocket-knife of his; and if, as I think I remember, it has a corkscrew attached, he would certainly have more instruments than he would need in that romantic condition. 241
We shall hope to hear a great deal of your journey 242 with all its haps and mishaps. The mishaps are just as pleasant as the haps when they are past; that is one comfort for tormented travellers.
You are an excellent correspondent, so I do not fear you will flag in writing to me; and remember you are always giving a pleasure when you write to your loving mother. 243
Marian Lewes.
MS: Lieutenant Commander Arthur Ouvry. Text: Paterson, pp. 70-72, dated 13 July 1859. Extracts published: Cross, II, 125-127.
Holly Lodge, | Wandsworth, | July 30, 1859.
Dear Charlie,
I look forward to playing duets with you as one of my future pleasures, and if I am able to go on working, I hope we shall afford to have a fine grand piano. I have none of Mozart's Symphonies, 236 so that you can be guided in your choice of them entirely by your own tastes. I know Beethoven's Sonata in E flat well. It is a very charming one, and I shall like to hear you play it. That is one of my luxuries -- to sit still and hear some one playing my favourite music; so that you may be sure you will find willing ears to listen to the fruits of your industrious practising.
There are ladies in the world, not a few, who play the violin, 237 and I wish I were one of them, for then we could play together sonatas for the piano and violin which make a charming combination. The violin gives that keen edge of tone which the piano wants.
I like to know that you were gratified by getting a watch 238 so much sooner than you expected. It was the greater satisfaction to me to send it you because you had earned it by making good use of these precious years at Hofwyl. It is a great comfort to your father and me to think of that, for we, with our grave old heads, cannot help talking very often of the need our boys will have for all sorts of good qualities and habits in making their way through this difficult life. It is a world, you perceive, in which crossbows will be launisch sometimes and frustrate the skill of excellent marksmen -- how much more of lazy bunglers? 239
The first volume of the "Physiology of Common Life" is just published and it is a great pleasure to see so much of your father's hard work successfully finished. He has been giving a great deal of labour 240 to the numbers on the Physiology of the Nervous System, which are to appear in the course of two or three months, and he has enjoyed the labour in spite of the drawback of imperfect health which obliges him very often to leave the desk with a hot and aching head. It is quite my worst trouble that he has so much of this discomfort to bear; and we must all try and make everything else as pleasant to him as we can, to make up for it. Tell Thornton he shall have the book he asks for -- if possible -- I mean the book of moths and butterflies; and tell Bertie I expect to hear about the wonderful things he has done with his pocket-knife. Tell him he is equipped well enough to become king of a desert island with that pocket-knife of his; and if, as I think I remember, it has a corkscrew attached, he would certainly have more instruments than he would need in that romantic condition. 241
We shall hope to hear a great deal of your journey 242 with all its haps and mishaps. The mishaps are just as pleasant as the haps when they are past; that is one comfort for tormented travellers.
You are an excellent correspondent, so I do not fear you will flag in writing to me; and remember you are always giving a pleasure when you write to your loving mother. 243
Marian Lewes.
Signature
Marian Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Wandsworth, 30 July 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/92224