GE TO MR. AND MRS. CHARLES BRAY, LONDON, [28 JANUARY 1851]
Title
GE TO MR. AND MRS. CHARLES BRAY, LONDON, [28 JANUARY 1851]
Title
GE TO MR. AND MRS. CHARLES BRAY, LONDON, [28 JANUARY 1851]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
MR. AND MRS. CHARLES BRAY
Date(s)
- 1851-01-28
Place
LONDON
Letter Content
GE TO MR. AND MRS. CHARLES BRAY, LONDON, [28 JANUARY 1851]
MS: Benjamin Collection, Columbia. Hitherto unpublished.
Strand.
Dearest Friends
I take for granted that you will like to hear what I am doing. On Friday evening I got out of bed to go and hear Faraday lecture at the theatre of the Royal Society 913 -- Mr. Mackay 914 having kindly given me a ticket. You must know Faraday's lectures are as fashionable an amusement as the Opera -- so there was store of ladies, who according to Mr. Mackay rain quite an adverse influence and spoil the lectures. 915 It always does one good to see a thoroughly enthusiastic man of science like Faraday. He told us we little knew how many hours he had spent in blowing minute soap bubbles -- like a certain other philosopher of my acquaintance. 916 When we got home we found Dr. Travis 917 and two or three other people. 918 Dr. T. is a charming man -- so spiritual and aesthetic looking that one is quite startled when he begins to retail dry Robert-Owenisms.
Good Mr. Mackay had invited me to dine at his house with Mr. and Mrs. Chapman on Sunday and not content with this he came in the morning to make himself quite sure we were coming and to tell us that he had had his piano tuned. We found a very pleasant party -- Dr. Arnott, 919 Leslie, 920 the painter with his wife and daughter and Mr. Vincent, Mr. Mackay's nephew, a good solid-looking young man. You have no idea how much Mr. M. is improved when one sees him in his own house. The dinner was excellent -- the conversation quite amusing -- Leslie and Dr. Arnott contributing plenty of quiet humorous anecdote. Then came a new batch of young people to tea -- Miss Constables and their brother, 921 and another gentleman or two. The piano was very tolerable. Dr. Arnott is a delightful old bachelor. 922 I talked to him a good deal while he was there but he slipped away soon after tea. Mr. Mackay shewed me some of his sketches of pictures, which he made in Italy. They are full of genius -- just what one would like to be able to do oneself. Mrs. Leslie asked me to go to Mr. Leslie's studio with Mr. Mackay some day. I should like it vastly -- for Leslie strikes me as quite an original man -- worth seeing again.
I am attending Professor Newman's course of lectures on Geometry at the Ladies' College 923 every Monday and Thursday. You will say that I can't afford this, which is [dreadful true] -- but the fact is that I happened to say I should like to do so and good-natured Mr. Chapman went straightway and bought me a ticket which he begged me to accept. I refused to accept it -- and have paid for it -- wherefore I must stint myself in some direction -- clearly in white gloves and probably in clean collars.
Dr. Brabant sends me word of what I had not observed in the Leader -- that Sara's Essay has gained the prizel 924 I am heartily glad and must write her a word today to tell her so. By the bye Dr. Brabant has very magnanimously written a letter in the last Inquirer vindicating Mr. Mackay from Dr. Beard's accusations. 925 It is exceedingly well done and he speaks of Mr. M. as "a friend whom I esteem, to whose learning I defer and whose moral courage I greatly admire."
Miss Martineau's book 926 is come out, but there was not so great a sale the first day as was anticipated. Mr. Chapman's feud with Miss Lynn about her novel is not yet terminated 927 -- I conclude Sara has told you something of the matter in her letter. Did she tell you that Shoberl 928 the publisher said -- "I assure you, Sir, I am most careful on the score of Politics, Religion, and indeed all the proprieties."
When am I to have Mr. Bray's promised letter? or to see him in propria persona. I shall be so glad of either. There is really no time to do anything here I am a poor never-having-time-to-clean-myself potter's wessel.
Your
Pollian.
MS: Benjamin Collection, Columbia. Hitherto unpublished.
Strand.
Dearest Friends
I take for granted that you will like to hear what I am doing. On Friday evening I got out of bed to go and hear Faraday lecture at the theatre of the Royal Society 913 -- Mr. Mackay 914 having kindly given me a ticket. You must know Faraday's lectures are as fashionable an amusement as the Opera -- so there was store of ladies, who according to Mr. Mackay rain quite an adverse influence and spoil the lectures. 915 It always does one good to see a thoroughly enthusiastic man of science like Faraday. He told us we little knew how many hours he had spent in blowing minute soap bubbles -- like a certain other philosopher of my acquaintance. 916 When we got home we found Dr. Travis 917 and two or three other people. 918 Dr. T. is a charming man -- so spiritual and aesthetic looking that one is quite startled when he begins to retail dry Robert-Owenisms.
Good Mr. Mackay had invited me to dine at his house with Mr. and Mrs. Chapman on Sunday and not content with this he came in the morning to make himself quite sure we were coming and to tell us that he had had his piano tuned. We found a very pleasant party -- Dr. Arnott, 919 Leslie, 920 the painter with his wife and daughter and Mr. Vincent, Mr. Mackay's nephew, a good solid-looking young man. You have no idea how much Mr. M. is improved when one sees him in his own house. The dinner was excellent -- the conversation quite amusing -- Leslie and Dr. Arnott contributing plenty of quiet humorous anecdote. Then came a new batch of young people to tea -- Miss Constables and their brother, 921 and another gentleman or two. The piano was very tolerable. Dr. Arnott is a delightful old bachelor. 922 I talked to him a good deal while he was there but he slipped away soon after tea. Mr. Mackay shewed me some of his sketches of pictures, which he made in Italy. They are full of genius -- just what one would like to be able to do oneself. Mrs. Leslie asked me to go to Mr. Leslie's studio with Mr. Mackay some day. I should like it vastly -- for Leslie strikes me as quite an original man -- worth seeing again.
I am attending Professor Newman's course of lectures on Geometry at the Ladies' College 923 every Monday and Thursday. You will say that I can't afford this, which is [dreadful true] -- but the fact is that I happened to say I should like to do so and good-natured Mr. Chapman went straightway and bought me a ticket which he begged me to accept. I refused to accept it -- and have paid for it -- wherefore I must stint myself in some direction -- clearly in white gloves and probably in clean collars.
Dr. Brabant sends me word of what I had not observed in the Leader -- that Sara's Essay has gained the prizel 924 I am heartily glad and must write her a word today to tell her so. By the bye Dr. Brabant has very magnanimously written a letter in the last Inquirer vindicating Mr. Mackay from Dr. Beard's accusations. 925 It is exceedingly well done and he speaks of Mr. M. as "a friend whom I esteem, to whose learning I defer and whose moral courage I greatly admire."
Miss Martineau's book 926 is come out, but there was not so great a sale the first day as was anticipated. Mr. Chapman's feud with Miss Lynn about her novel is not yet terminated 927 -- I conclude Sara has told you something of the matter in her letter. Did she tell you that Shoberl 928 the publisher said -- "I assure you, Sir, I am most careful on the score of Politics, Religion, and indeed all the proprieties."
When am I to have Mr. Bray's promised letter? or to see him in propria persona. I shall be so glad of either. There is really no time to do anything here I am a poor never-having-time-to-clean-myself potter's wessel.
Your
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE TO MR. AND MRS. CHARLES BRAY, LONDON, [28 JANUARY 1851], 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/93170