GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 8 April 1879
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 8 April 1879
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 8 April 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1879-04-08
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 8 April 1879
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Extracts published: Cross, III, 354-355.
The Priory | April 8. 79.
Dearest Barbara
Your letter was very welcome this morning, for I do not like to be very long without having some picture of you, and your words of affection are always sweet.
The Studentship I mention is to supply an income to a young man who is qualified and eager to carry on physiological research and would not otherwise have the means of doing so. Mr. H. Sidgwick, Michael Foster, and other men of kindred mind are helping me in settling the scheme. I have been determined in my choice of the Studentship by the idea of what would be a sort of prolongation of His life. That there should always, in consequence of his having lived, be a young man working in the way he would have liked to work, is a memorial of him that comes nearest to my feeling. It is to be at Cambridge to begin with, and we thought at first of affiliating it to the University, but now the notion is that it will be well to keep it free, so that the Trustees may move it where and when they will. But the Scheme is not yet draughted.
I cannot tell yet when I shall be able to get down to Witley, for our daughter-in-law (Bertie's widow) with her two little children is on her way to England from Natal -- terrified into flight by the state of things there -- and as she comes in a sailing vessel, the time of her arrival is uncertain. I must stay to see her and the little ones.
I am going to bring out one of His Problems in a separate volume at the beginning of May, and am now correcting the proofs. 212
My going to Witley is an experiment. I don't know how I shall bear being there. But I hope there will be nothing to hinder my having you there if you will undertake the troublesome journey for my sake. It is a little melancholy to me that the Blandford Sq. house is let for so long, but that does not hinder it from being the wiser plan. It releases you from trouble about details.
My love to Nannie and Bessie when you write to them -- and to the dear dark-eyed Marquis 213 when she comes back to you.
I am better in health, but find seeing the few people I am obliged to see very fatiguing, and dare not say [I will do this or that] much beforehand.
Ever your loving grateful
Marian.
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Extracts published: Cross, III, 354-355.
The Priory | April 8. 79.
Dearest Barbara
Your letter was very welcome this morning, for I do not like to be very long without having some picture of you, and your words of affection are always sweet.
The Studentship I mention is to supply an income to a young man who is qualified and eager to carry on physiological research and would not otherwise have the means of doing so. Mr. H. Sidgwick, Michael Foster, and other men of kindred mind are helping me in settling the scheme. I have been determined in my choice of the Studentship by the idea of what would be a sort of prolongation of His life. That there should always, in consequence of his having lived, be a young man working in the way he would have liked to work, is a memorial of him that comes nearest to my feeling. It is to be at Cambridge to begin with, and we thought at first of affiliating it to the University, but now the notion is that it will be well to keep it free, so that the Trustees may move it where and when they will. But the Scheme is not yet draughted.
I cannot tell yet when I shall be able to get down to Witley, for our daughter-in-law (Bertie's widow) with her two little children is on her way to England from Natal -- terrified into flight by the state of things there -- and as she comes in a sailing vessel, the time of her arrival is uncertain. I must stay to see her and the little ones.
I am going to bring out one of His Problems in a separate volume at the beginning of May, and am now correcting the proofs. 212
My going to Witley is an experiment. I don't know how I shall bear being there. But I hope there will be nothing to hinder my having you there if you will undertake the troublesome journey for my sake. It is a little melancholy to me that the Blandford Sq. house is let for so long, but that does not hinder it from being the wiser plan. It releases you from trouble about details.
My love to Nannie and Bessie when you write to them -- and to the dear dark-eyed Marquis 213 when she comes back to you.
I am better in health, but find seeing the few people I am obliged to see very fatiguing, and dare not say [I will do this or that] much beforehand.
Ever your loving grateful
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 8 April 1879, 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/93071