GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, 21 May 1841
Title
GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, 21 May 1841
Title
GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, 21 May 1841
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Martha Jackson
Date(s)
- 1841-05-21
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, 21 May 1841
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Brief extract published: W. R. Nicoll and T. J. Wise, Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols., 1895, II, 473-474.
Foleshill Road Coventry | May 21st 1841.
My very dear Martha
Being at length quite naturalized in this our adopted country, and at liberty to stretch the wings of thought and memory beyond my own nest and bush, I am determined to remind you of my existence and to enlighten you, as the metaphysicians say, concerning its modes. But the desire for similar information about you is paramount in persuading me to write, and I have as many queries rising to my lips as, if you were here to have them orally delivered, would make you wish, like Rosalind, that the answers were corked up in you like wine in a bottle, 314 so as to pop forth one after another involuntarily. I want to know that your tottering health has gained a firm and even gait, that you are at length set free from dyspepsia, influenza (a visitor by the bye of mine) and all the other acquaintances that, as is usual with the pests of society, are obliged to adopt an alias to pass through it. This is my first anxiety, but beyond this knowledge I shall be glad to receive all you can impart about yourself and your family. I imagine an interesting event must be approaching amongst you similar to one we expect soon to enter on our family chronicles, no other, as you will guess, than the marriage of my brother, which I hope will occur on the 8th of June.
Your undeserved affection will, I think, cause you to rejoice with me in the rich blessings that are continued and superadded to me in our new abode; you remember that I had forebodings as to the influence of a change on my dear Father. These are all dissipated, and I can decidedly say that I never before saw him so happy as he apparently is at present. Our next neighbours are Mr. and Mrs. Pears, gradually growing into friends, and I think valuable ones. If it were permissible to express a regret amid so many unmerited mercies, I should mention my lack of a free range for walking which I so enjoyed at Griff, with the deprivation of that [prolixity of shade] 315 of which I am a not less ardent lover than Cowper himself. I find too what I did not fully anticipate, a considerable disturbance of the usual flow of thought and feeling on being severed from the objects so long accustomed to call it forth. There is the same cope, imperial in its beauty, above me, the clouds are not less majestic or fleecy, the verdure of this month is even deeper and more luxuriant than any I have ever before seen, but I have never yet enjoyed that communion with them, viewed from my present position, that long familiarity rendered spontaneous in my early home.
Leaving this fruitless subject, I will not omit to tell you that you have instrumentally furnished me with the best soother under a rather severe attack of influenza in [The physical theory of another life] 316 which I had lent to a friend without reading it myself until about a month ago, when I nestled in my father's armchair and forgot headache cough and all their et ceteras in the rapture this precious book caused me, as intense as that of any school girl over her first novel. My chief trouble here ought to be my uselessness for I seem to have nothing to do but seek gratification, but to the willing spirit there is in every situation "room to deny ourselves, a road to bring us daily nearer God." After all this positive egotism, I will pass to what is only comparative, and speak of a friend dear to us both -- of Jessie, 317 who I fear is under a cloud. I wrote rather sillily to her the other week and have not since heard any tidings of her. My immediate spur to write then was a report of her having been indisposed since her departure from Coventry. She had much to try her health and spirits here. It is the prerogative of friendship to dignify the gift even of a few hairs and I question whether, from a bald friend, we should not cherish the paring of a nail as a relic -- hence I draw an inference favourable to the prospects of my worthless letter, which I venture to hope you will receive with pleasure as a proof of the remembrance and affection of your true
Clematis.
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Brief extract published: W. R. Nicoll and T. J. Wise, Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols., 1895, II, 473-474.
Foleshill Road Coventry | May 21st 1841.
My very dear Martha
Being at length quite naturalized in this our adopted country, and at liberty to stretch the wings of thought and memory beyond my own nest and bush, I am determined to remind you of my existence and to enlighten you, as the metaphysicians say, concerning its modes. But the desire for similar information about you is paramount in persuading me to write, and I have as many queries rising to my lips as, if you were here to have them orally delivered, would make you wish, like Rosalind, that the answers were corked up in you like wine in a bottle, 314 so as to pop forth one after another involuntarily. I want to know that your tottering health has gained a firm and even gait, that you are at length set free from dyspepsia, influenza (a visitor by the bye of mine) and all the other acquaintances that, as is usual with the pests of society, are obliged to adopt an alias to pass through it. This is my first anxiety, but beyond this knowledge I shall be glad to receive all you can impart about yourself and your family. I imagine an interesting event must be approaching amongst you similar to one we expect soon to enter on our family chronicles, no other, as you will guess, than the marriage of my brother, which I hope will occur on the 8th of June.
Your undeserved affection will, I think, cause you to rejoice with me in the rich blessings that are continued and superadded to me in our new abode; you remember that I had forebodings as to the influence of a change on my dear Father. These are all dissipated, and I can decidedly say that I never before saw him so happy as he apparently is at present. Our next neighbours are Mr. and Mrs. Pears, gradually growing into friends, and I think valuable ones. If it were permissible to express a regret amid so many unmerited mercies, I should mention my lack of a free range for walking which I so enjoyed at Griff, with the deprivation of that [prolixity of shade] 315 of which I am a not less ardent lover than Cowper himself. I find too what I did not fully anticipate, a considerable disturbance of the usual flow of thought and feeling on being severed from the objects so long accustomed to call it forth. There is the same cope, imperial in its beauty, above me, the clouds are not less majestic or fleecy, the verdure of this month is even deeper and more luxuriant than any I have ever before seen, but I have never yet enjoyed that communion with them, viewed from my present position, that long familiarity rendered spontaneous in my early home.
Leaving this fruitless subject, I will not omit to tell you that you have instrumentally furnished me with the best soother under a rather severe attack of influenza in [The physical theory of another life] 316 which I had lent to a friend without reading it myself until about a month ago, when I nestled in my father's armchair and forgot headache cough and all their et ceteras in the rapture this precious book caused me, as intense as that of any school girl over her first novel. My chief trouble here ought to be my uselessness for I seem to have nothing to do but seek gratification, but to the willing spirit there is in every situation "room to deny ourselves, a road to bring us daily nearer God." After all this positive egotism, I will pass to what is only comparative, and speak of a friend dear to us both -- of Jessie, 317 who I fear is under a cloud. I wrote rather sillily to her the other week and have not since heard any tidings of her. My immediate spur to write then was a report of her having been indisposed since her departure from Coventry. She had much to try her health and spirits here. It is the prerogative of friendship to dignify the gift even of a few hairs and I question whether, from a bald friend, we should not cherish the paring of a nail as a relic -- hence I draw an inference favourable to the prospects of my worthless letter, which I venture to hope you will receive with pleasure as a proof of the remembrance and affection of your true
Clematis.
Signature
Clematis.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, 21 May 1841, 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/92926