GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 12 August 1880
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 12 August 1880
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 12 August 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Lee Lewes
Date(s)
- 1880-08-12
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 12 August 1880
MS: Mrs. Carrington Ouvry. Published: Paterson, pp. 237-240.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
August 12. 80.
Dearest Boy
I expected your letter and expected too just the sort of letter I have received, telling me everything delightfully. Only I wish you had not told me about the deep cut in the finger because it makes me shudder at what it might have been.
I can follow you everywhere in your journeying except to Oberwesel. But you speak of the Rhine as if you had not been up it before and I thought that you had "done" it with Gertrude in one of your former holidays. I hope you will have enjoyed St. Blasien and some of the walks there consecrated by the beloved Pater's footsteps. We lived in the D'e9pendance and had some rooms which were being reserved for a princess whose name I have forgotten. Then we reversed your drive and went to Freiburg, so that I can enter into your enjoyment of the H'f6llenthal. Heidelberg, I agree with you, is one of the most beautiful of German towns, but I fear it is not very healthy, so it was very well that you could make no long stay there.
I am glad that your weather has been temperate, especially for Gertrude's sake who, I know, finds heat very trying. Here we have now had 'abthree'bb four sunny and really hot days and this morning promises a fifth. That is consolatory as to the harvest and is very agreeable as to our private life. The last two evenings we have walked in the garden after 8 o'clock, the first time by starlight, the second, under a vapoury sky with the red moon setting. The air was perfectly still and warm and I felt no need of extra clothing. I can make you no good return for your pleasant narrative, for our life has had no more important events than calls from neighbours and our calls in return.
The Hollands are very kind and I hope that Johnnie will get some tennis with the young ones, as he much needs to get exercise. He is gone into town again this morning after being there yesterday, and he feels the length of railway rather fatiguing. It is a little unfortunate that we take the railway again tomorrow to pay our visit to the Druces at Sevenoaks, where, you may remember, Mr. Druce has built a beautiful house. But we shall stay till Tuesday and there will be plenty of lawn tennis, so I think of the visit as altogether a sanitary expedition. At the beginning of September we are to visit Mr. and Mrs. Otter at Ranby, and after that I suppose we shall go to Six Mile for a day or two. Then our wanderings will be over.
I wrote yesterday to Eliza and sent her the cheque for August, 462 so I shall have some news of her presently. And I had a letter from Susanna in which she says that Constance is now getting better and that Vivian is with her in Cumberland, she herself keeping house for them at Greenwich. 463 I shall send Susanna your letter to amuse her. It is very pleasing to me that she speaks of having greater happiness than she has known for years from her "ideal friendship" with the young lady whom you saw with her at Hastings.
I suppose you get a glimpse of the papers occasionally and know all about Mr. Gladstone's illness and recovery, the liberal majority against the Compensation for Disturbances Bill, and the deplorable railway accident to the Flying Scotchman and worse wreck of the ship with nearly a thousand pilgrims on board -- all lost.
I went to the Priory the other day and found a treatise on Blood pressure by Dr. Roy, 464 which he had sent me there and which he has published as the "George Henry Lewes Student". Dr. Roy's mother has lately died. She lived at Arbroath -- Mr. Main's town, you remember -- all which I only know because a black-edged printed letter was sent to me addressed in Dr. R's handwriting. So I imagine that he has come to pursue his studies in England, as he intended to do. Delboeuf's article on the last volume of the Problems (in the "Athenaeum Bilge" which you brought me) is very nicely done. 465 He has read the book.
I shall long very much to hear good news of you once again before you turn homeward. I am pretty well, but I find myself more languid than I was when abroad. I think the cause is perhaps the moisture of the climate.
Johnnie would send his love if he were here, as I wish he were, instead of having to breathe the air of the city. -- I hope Gertrude is getting some strength. Much love to her and to you, dearest Boy. You have been a great comfort to your loving
Mutter.
MS: Mrs. Carrington Ouvry. Published: Paterson, pp. 237-240.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
August 12. 80.
Dearest Boy
I expected your letter and expected too just the sort of letter I have received, telling me everything delightfully. Only I wish you had not told me about the deep cut in the finger because it makes me shudder at what it might have been.
I can follow you everywhere in your journeying except to Oberwesel. But you speak of the Rhine as if you had not been up it before and I thought that you had "done" it with Gertrude in one of your former holidays. I hope you will have enjoyed St. Blasien and some of the walks there consecrated by the beloved Pater's footsteps. We lived in the D'e9pendance and had some rooms which were being reserved for a princess whose name I have forgotten. Then we reversed your drive and went to Freiburg, so that I can enter into your enjoyment of the H'f6llenthal. Heidelberg, I agree with you, is one of the most beautiful of German towns, but I fear it is not very healthy, so it was very well that you could make no long stay there.
I am glad that your weather has been temperate, especially for Gertrude's sake who, I know, finds heat very trying. Here we have now had 'abthree'bb four sunny and really hot days and this morning promises a fifth. That is consolatory as to the harvest and is very agreeable as to our private life. The last two evenings we have walked in the garden after 8 o'clock, the first time by starlight, the second, under a vapoury sky with the red moon setting. The air was perfectly still and warm and I felt no need of extra clothing. I can make you no good return for your pleasant narrative, for our life has had no more important events than calls from neighbours and our calls in return.
The Hollands are very kind and I hope that Johnnie will get some tennis with the young ones, as he much needs to get exercise. He is gone into town again this morning after being there yesterday, and he feels the length of railway rather fatiguing. It is a little unfortunate that we take the railway again tomorrow to pay our visit to the Druces at Sevenoaks, where, you may remember, Mr. Druce has built a beautiful house. But we shall stay till Tuesday and there will be plenty of lawn tennis, so I think of the visit as altogether a sanitary expedition. At the beginning of September we are to visit Mr. and Mrs. Otter at Ranby, and after that I suppose we shall go to Six Mile for a day or two. Then our wanderings will be over.
I wrote yesterday to Eliza and sent her the cheque for August, 462 so I shall have some news of her presently. And I had a letter from Susanna in which she says that Constance is now getting better and that Vivian is with her in Cumberland, she herself keeping house for them at Greenwich. 463 I shall send Susanna your letter to amuse her. It is very pleasing to me that she speaks of having greater happiness than she has known for years from her "ideal friendship" with the young lady whom you saw with her at Hastings.
I suppose you get a glimpse of the papers occasionally and know all about Mr. Gladstone's illness and recovery, the liberal majority against the Compensation for Disturbances Bill, and the deplorable railway accident to the Flying Scotchman and worse wreck of the ship with nearly a thousand pilgrims on board -- all lost.
I went to the Priory the other day and found a treatise on Blood pressure by Dr. Roy, 464 which he had sent me there and which he has published as the "George Henry Lewes Student". Dr. Roy's mother has lately died. She lived at Arbroath -- Mr. Main's town, you remember -- all which I only know because a black-edged printed letter was sent to me addressed in Dr. R's handwriting. So I imagine that he has come to pursue his studies in England, as he intended to do. Delboeuf's article on the last volume of the Problems (in the "Athenaeum Bilge" which you brought me) is very nicely done. 465 He has read the book.
I shall long very much to hear good news of you once again before you turn homeward. I am pretty well, but I find myself more languid than I was when abroad. I think the cause is perhaps the moisture of the climate.
Johnnie would send his love if he were here, as I wish he were, instead of having to breathe the air of the city. -- I hope Gertrude is getting some strength. Much love to her and to you, dearest Boy. You have been a great comfort to your loving
Mutter.
Signature
Mutter.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 12 August 1880, 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/92236