GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, [Witley], 4 August 1877
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, [Witley], 4 August 1877
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, [Witley], 4 August 1877
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1877-08-04
Place
[Witley]
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, [Witley], 4 August 1877
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 87-91.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
August 4. 77.
Dearest Elma
A letter from your dear Roland this morning tells me that you are only just beginning to recover from a very painful attack. I am most thankful to the dear fellow for writing me word of this. For it is one of the qualities of Love to desire that the loved one should not go through suffering and that suffering remain all the while unknown and unfelt for. I should like to make you promise that you will never hide your pain or sorrow from me. I rather suspect that you follow Shakespeare in that tender desire not to be thought of --
"For I love you so That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, If thinking on me e'er should cause you woe." 736
Give up that doctrine or habit with regard to me. Because I would rather be sorry that you were sorry than be ignorantly merry when you were in anguish. -- We are fearing that your illness may be made the more trying to you because you have a visitor -- Mrs. Chesney, is it not? -- and we know something, or have well imagined something, of your ardent hospitality, which would make you regret your illness as an elderly friend of mine once regretted that she was obliged to have a tooth out -- it must be so disagreeable to the dentist to attend to an old woman's mouth!
To gratify this excessive altruism of yours I will tell you that I am much better and able to take a good walk. Mr. Lewes too is full of enjoyment, though under the drawback of frequent headache. He is enraptured with this part of the country, and we are hoping that you will come and see it in September, when it will be magnificent with the first touches of autumn's golden finger. Tennyson, you perhaps know, is within a drive of us, and he too lives (for a few summer months) on a hill where he commands the double, contrasted beauties of this wonderful county -- the wide high heath and the fertile plain. But perhaps you know all about these parts better than I do, and we shall not be able to show you any novelty in a drive to Hind Head.
We have brought your tables down with us for the summer, and a lady who came here the other day was struck with admiration, setting down the table as an expensive bit of Japanese work! We value it much more than if it had been made by unknown Mongolian fingers.
The exquisite blue table-cloth is not brought down, being reserved for a time when our surroundings will be less make-shift and camp-like. We have no spare-bed, and our own bed-room looks rather as if we had been distrained for rent. But happily we are within 3 minutes of the railway station, so that when you come we can have a good long day together. -- You must please let Roly write again and let me know how you are going on. I imagine what tender care you are having from him and from your guardian angel Mrs. Menzies. That is a great comfort to me in thinking of you.
And when you are once more able to write with your own hand, tell me all about Roly -- whether any inclination to a special career has declared itself, or whether you have come to any definite arrangement concerning his future. He writes very prettily -- I mean, that his handwriting is very clear and well-shapen, as it was bound to be according to any satisfactory results of h'e9r'e9dit'e9.
You see, I am scribbling hastily, in order that my letter may go off this morning at 10 o'clock -- our only post on Sunday. Always, dear one,
Your loving
Mother.
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 87-91.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
August 4. 77.
Dearest Elma
A letter from your dear Roland this morning tells me that you are only just beginning to recover from a very painful attack. I am most thankful to the dear fellow for writing me word of this. For it is one of the qualities of Love to desire that the loved one should not go through suffering and that suffering remain all the while unknown and unfelt for. I should like to make you promise that you will never hide your pain or sorrow from me. I rather suspect that you follow Shakespeare in that tender desire not to be thought of --
"For I love you so That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, If thinking on me e'er should cause you woe." 736
Give up that doctrine or habit with regard to me. Because I would rather be sorry that you were sorry than be ignorantly merry when you were in anguish. -- We are fearing that your illness may be made the more trying to you because you have a visitor -- Mrs. Chesney, is it not? -- and we know something, or have well imagined something, of your ardent hospitality, which would make you regret your illness as an elderly friend of mine once regretted that she was obliged to have a tooth out -- it must be so disagreeable to the dentist to attend to an old woman's mouth!
To gratify this excessive altruism of yours I will tell you that I am much better and able to take a good walk. Mr. Lewes too is full of enjoyment, though under the drawback of frequent headache. He is enraptured with this part of the country, and we are hoping that you will come and see it in September, when it will be magnificent with the first touches of autumn's golden finger. Tennyson, you perhaps know, is within a drive of us, and he too lives (for a few summer months) on a hill where he commands the double, contrasted beauties of this wonderful county -- the wide high heath and the fertile plain. But perhaps you know all about these parts better than I do, and we shall not be able to show you any novelty in a drive to Hind Head.
We have brought your tables down with us for the summer, and a lady who came here the other day was struck with admiration, setting down the table as an expensive bit of Japanese work! We value it much more than if it had been made by unknown Mongolian fingers.
The exquisite blue table-cloth is not brought down, being reserved for a time when our surroundings will be less make-shift and camp-like. We have no spare-bed, and our own bed-room looks rather as if we had been distrained for rent. But happily we are within 3 minutes of the railway station, so that when you come we can have a good long day together. -- You must please let Roly write again and let me know how you are going on. I imagine what tender care you are having from him and from your guardian angel Mrs. Menzies. That is a great comfort to me in thinking of you.
And when you are once more able to write with your own hand, tell me all about Roly -- whether any inclination to a special career has declared itself, or whether you have come to any definite arrangement concerning his future. He writes very prettily -- I mean, that his handwriting is very clear and well-shapen, as it was bound to be according to any satisfactory results of h'e9r'e9dit'e9.
You see, I am scribbling hastily, in order that my letter may go off this morning at 10 o'clock -- our only post on Sunday. Always, dear one,
Your loving
Mother.
Signature
Mother.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, [Witley], 4 August 1877, 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/93381