GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 June 1878
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 June 1878
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 June 1878
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1878-06-07
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 June 1878
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 327-328.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
June 7. 78.
My dear Cara
I am so grieved to hear that the Sydenham house must still be a load on your mind. One can only hope that the summer demand will by and by carry it off at least for a few months.
The royalties did themselves much credit. The Crown Prince is really a grand looking man, whose name you would ask for with expectation if you imagined him no royalty. He is like a grand antique bust -- cordial and simple in manners withal, shaking hands and insisting that I should let him know when we next came to Berlin, just as if he had been a Professor Gruppe, living au troisi'e8me. She is less distinguished in physique, but equally good-natured and unpretending, liking best to talk of nursing soldiers and of what her Father's taste was in literature. She opened the talk by saying, "You knew my sister Louise" -- just as any other slightly embarrassed mortal might have done. The only complaint one had to make was that she never sat down till quite late in the evening -- a sore trial to plebeian legs and backs. We had a picked party to dinner -- Dean of Westminster, Bishop of Peterborough, Lord and Lady Ripon, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Kinglake (you remember Eothen -- the formal old gentleman is a good friend of mine) Froude, Mrs. Ponsonby (Lord Grey's granddaughter), and two or three more [illustrations] -- then a small detachment coming in after dinner. It was really an interesting occasion.
We have got through our furniture buying to our great relief -- and now Charles and Gertrude are going to leave Miss Gillies and set up a house of their own -- room being deficient for the growing family. But we shall not have to buy for them, thank heaven, except in the sense of finding the money. 78 We both long for quiet and a farewell to shops which are my abhorrence.
I hope you will have found Sara pretty well by the time you read this, and will feel no other shadow over your life than this of the Sydenham business. But remember everything I said to you.
Your loving
Marian.
We go to Oxford tomorrow, and by the following Saturday we hope that the flitting will have been made.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 327-328.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
June 7. 78.
My dear Cara
I am so grieved to hear that the Sydenham house must still be a load on your mind. One can only hope that the summer demand will by and by carry it off at least for a few months.
The royalties did themselves much credit. The Crown Prince is really a grand looking man, whose name you would ask for with expectation if you imagined him no royalty. He is like a grand antique bust -- cordial and simple in manners withal, shaking hands and insisting that I should let him know when we next came to Berlin, just as if he had been a Professor Gruppe, living au troisi'e8me. She is less distinguished in physique, but equally good-natured and unpretending, liking best to talk of nursing soldiers and of what her Father's taste was in literature. She opened the talk by saying, "You knew my sister Louise" -- just as any other slightly embarrassed mortal might have done. The only complaint one had to make was that she never sat down till quite late in the evening -- a sore trial to plebeian legs and backs. We had a picked party to dinner -- Dean of Westminster, Bishop of Peterborough, Lord and Lady Ripon, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Kinglake (you remember Eothen -- the formal old gentleman is a good friend of mine) Froude, Mrs. Ponsonby (Lord Grey's granddaughter), and two or three more [illustrations] -- then a small detachment coming in after dinner. It was really an interesting occasion.
We have got through our furniture buying to our great relief -- and now Charles and Gertrude are going to leave Miss Gillies and set up a house of their own -- room being deficient for the growing family. But we shall not have to buy for them, thank heaven, except in the sense of finding the money. 78 We both long for quiet and a farewell to shops which are my abhorrence.
I hope you will have found Sara pretty well by the time you read this, and will feel no other shadow over your life than this of the Sydenham business. But remember everything I said to you.
Your loving
Marian.
We go to Oxford tomorrow, and by the following Saturday we hope that the flitting will have been made.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 June 1878, 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/93311