GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 19 August 1863
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 19 August 1863
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 19 August 1863
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1863-08-19
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 19 August 1863
Text: Copy lent by the Countess of Iddesleigh. Extracts published: Cross, II, 363-364.
Blandford Sq. | August 19. 63.
Dear Barbara
Your letter brought me needful comfort. I seldom feel any emanation of sadness from you, but I had a little consciousness of that sort when you came to say goodby, looking so weary and telling us that the dear Doctor was ill.
I was at Worthing 182 when your letter came, spending all my daylight hours out of doors and trying with all my might to get health and cheerfulness. I will tell you the true reason why I did not go to Hastings. I thought you would be all the better for not having that solicitation of your kindness that the fact of my presence there might have caused. What you needed was precisely to get away from people to whom you would inevitably want to be doing something friendly, instead of giving yourself up to passive enjoyment.
Else, of course I should have liked everything you write about and invite me to -- especially the visit to Nannie in her imprisonment. I get a great deal of pleasure out of your assurance that the thought of seeing me brought some added brightness into her eyes.
We only got home last night and I suppose we shall hardly be able to leave town again till after the two younger boys have left us and after we have moved into the new house. Thornie's destination is still doubtful for us. His companions in failure are getting up a memorial to Sir Charles Wood, 183 showing that their case is peculiarly hard and unjust, since the announcement that the second examination, contrary to precedent, was to be final, was not made until it was too late for them to take the additional year they would otherwise have taken for study before presenting themselves for the first examination.
We have not yet received an answer from Mr. Heald, so that at present we do not even know whether he will still accept pupils.
Since I saw you I have had some sweet woman's tenderness shown me by Mrs. Hare, 184 the <wife> widow of Archdeacon Hare, and the sister of Frederick Maurice. This is between ourselves. I will tell you more when I see you.
I know how you are enjoying the country. I have just been having the joy myself. The wide sky, the not-London, makes a new creature of me in half an hour. I wonder then why I am ever depressed -- why I am so shaken by agitations. I come back to London, and again the air is full of demons. God bless you.
Ever yours
Marian.
Text: Copy lent by the Countess of Iddesleigh. Extracts published: Cross, II, 363-364.
Blandford Sq. | August 19. 63.
Dear Barbara
Your letter brought me needful comfort. I seldom feel any emanation of sadness from you, but I had a little consciousness of that sort when you came to say goodby, looking so weary and telling us that the dear Doctor was ill.
I was at Worthing 182 when your letter came, spending all my daylight hours out of doors and trying with all my might to get health and cheerfulness. I will tell you the true reason why I did not go to Hastings. I thought you would be all the better for not having that solicitation of your kindness that the fact of my presence there might have caused. What you needed was precisely to get away from people to whom you would inevitably want to be doing something friendly, instead of giving yourself up to passive enjoyment.
Else, of course I should have liked everything you write about and invite me to -- especially the visit to Nannie in her imprisonment. I get a great deal of pleasure out of your assurance that the thought of seeing me brought some added brightness into her eyes.
We only got home last night and I suppose we shall hardly be able to leave town again till after the two younger boys have left us and after we have moved into the new house. Thornie's destination is still doubtful for us. His companions in failure are getting up a memorial to Sir Charles Wood, 183 showing that their case is peculiarly hard and unjust, since the announcement that the second examination, contrary to precedent, was to be final, was not made until it was too late for them to take the additional year they would otherwise have taken for study before presenting themselves for the first examination.
We have not yet received an answer from Mr. Heald, so that at present we do not even know whether he will still accept pupils.
Since I saw you I have had some sweet woman's tenderness shown me by Mrs. Hare, 184 the <wife> widow of Archdeacon Hare, and the sister of Frederick Maurice. This is between ourselves. I will tell you more when I see you.
I know how you are enjoying the country. I have just been having the joy myself. The wide sky, the not-London, makes a new creature of me in half an hour. I wonder then why I am ever depressed -- why I am so shaken by agitations. I come back to London, and again the air is full of demons. God bless you.
Ever yours
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 19 August 1863, 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/93040