GE to John Blackwood, London, 18 March 1867
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 18 March 1867
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 18 March 1867
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1867-03-18
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, London, 18 March 1867
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 13-14.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
March 18. 67.
My dear Sir
We got home on Saturday evening, 597 after as fine a passage from Calais to Dover as we ever had even in summer. Your letter was amongst the pleasant things that smiled at me on my return and helped to reconcile me to the rather rude transition from summer to winter which we have made in our journey from Biarritz. This morning it is snowing hard and the wind is roaring -- a sufficiently sharp contrast to the hot sun, the dust and the mosquitoes of Seville. I hope Mr. Lewes will not suffer from the change. At present he is better than he has been for several years before, and he was strong enough to escape a cold from the unwarmed picture galleries at Madrid. I did myself less credit there and carried away a cold which laid me up for a week at Biarritz.
We have had a glorious journey. The skies alone, both night and day, were worth travelling all the way to see. After I wrote to you we went to Cordova and Seville, but we feared the cold of the central lands in the north, and resisted the temptation to see Toledo or anything else than the Madrid pictures, which are transcendant.
Among the letters awaiting me was one from an American travelling in Europe, who gives me the history of a copy of Felix Holt, which he says has been read by no end of people, and is now on its way through Ireland, where he "found many friends anxious but unable to get it." It seems people nowadays economise in nothing but books.
I found also the letter of a "Conveyancer" in the Pall Mall, justifying the law of Felix Holt in answer to the Edinburgh Reviewer. I did not know, before I was told of this letter in reply, that the E. R. had found fault with my law. Probably the reviewer is Mr. Reeve 598 himself, who made a similar display of rashness 'e0 propos of Buckle's history, undertaking to correct the author by declaring that Spain was remarkably free from earthquakes! He has been gibbeted (morally) in the second volume of Buckle, 599 but there is a sort of stupidity and unconscientiousness for which nothing short of bodily gibbeting will serve as a silencing lesson. I hope to hear some agreeable news of Mr. William Blackwood's prospects -- perhaps that something good is to happen earlier than was promised. 600 Mr. Lewes joins me in kind remembrances, and I am always
Yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 13-14.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
March 18. 67.
My dear Sir
We got home on Saturday evening, 597 after as fine a passage from Calais to Dover as we ever had even in summer. Your letter was amongst the pleasant things that smiled at me on my return and helped to reconcile me to the rather rude transition from summer to winter which we have made in our journey from Biarritz. This morning it is snowing hard and the wind is roaring -- a sufficiently sharp contrast to the hot sun, the dust and the mosquitoes of Seville. I hope Mr. Lewes will not suffer from the change. At present he is better than he has been for several years before, and he was strong enough to escape a cold from the unwarmed picture galleries at Madrid. I did myself less credit there and carried away a cold which laid me up for a week at Biarritz.
We have had a glorious journey. The skies alone, both night and day, were worth travelling all the way to see. After I wrote to you we went to Cordova and Seville, but we feared the cold of the central lands in the north, and resisted the temptation to see Toledo or anything else than the Madrid pictures, which are transcendant.
Among the letters awaiting me was one from an American travelling in Europe, who gives me the history of a copy of Felix Holt, which he says has been read by no end of people, and is now on its way through Ireland, where he "found many friends anxious but unable to get it." It seems people nowadays economise in nothing but books.
I found also the letter of a "Conveyancer" in the Pall Mall, justifying the law of Felix Holt in answer to the Edinburgh Reviewer. I did not know, before I was told of this letter in reply, that the E. R. had found fault with my law. Probably the reviewer is Mr. Reeve 598 himself, who made a similar display of rashness 'e0 propos of Buckle's history, undertaking to correct the author by declaring that Spain was remarkably free from earthquakes! He has been gibbeted (morally) in the second volume of Buckle, 599 but there is a sort of stupidity and unconscientiousness for which nothing short of bodily gibbeting will serve as a silencing lesson. I hope to hear some agreeable news of Mr. William Blackwood's prospects -- perhaps that something good is to happen earlier than was promised. 600 Mr. Lewes joins me in kind remembrances, and I am always
Yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, London, 18 March 1867, 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/92622