GE to Annie [Mrs. James T.] Fields, Earlswood Common, 5 June 1874
Title
GE to Annie [Mrs. James T.] Fields, Earlswood Common, 5 June 1874
Title
GE to Annie [Mrs. James T.] Fields, Earlswood Common, 5 June 1874
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Annie [Mrs. James T.] Fields
Date(s)
- 1874-06-05
Place
Earlswood Common
Letter Content
GE to Annie [Mrs. James T.] Fields, Earlswood Common, 5 June 1874
MS: Harvard. Hitherto unpublished.
The Cottage | Earlswood Common | Surrey | June 5. 74.
Dear Mrs. Fields
Your letter 100 is very sweet to me. When I had half read the first page and was not quite sure as to the writer, I turned to the signature and found the sympathetic words all the more precious because they came from one whose brief presence had been enough to give me a strong interest in her. Such proofs of the far-off spiritual contact between us are a great help to me and are often needed to counterbalance depressing influences which arise within from perturbed health and without from the mixed conditions of our social life, in which it often seems that the noise and hurry -- the [too much] of everything -- which seems continually on the increase must almost nullify one's small individual efforts.
It is not for want of hope and belief in America as the scene of a great future, nor for want of real delight in the graceful kindliness which I have felt in all the distinguished natures from the United States with whom I have had any intercourse, that I give up the sight of the great New World. 101 And will you, please, tell dear Mrs. Stowe, when you see her, that I am not failing in memory of her and her husband although as a correspondent I am dumb? My nervous energy has been much drawn upon by neuralgic pain, from unavoidable colds which beset me in this climate and I have little margin for any letter writing save such as business or rigorous courtesy demands.
I received the splendid photograph of her "Rabbi," and am proud to possess it.
Pray present my best regards to Mr. Fields. If it were not that I bear in mind how much he suffers from the voyage, I should hope that you would both find reason to come to Europe again. Mr. Lewes is one with me in pleasant recollections of all our intercourse with Mr. Fields and our pretty glimpses of you.
Believe me, dear Mrs. Fields,
Yours with high esteem
M. E. Lewes.
You see we are [en retraite,] and have escaped the turmoil of London. We came here three days ago. It is extremely difficult to get a permanent house such as we want in Kent or Surrey and we have been searching in vain for the last two years.
MS: Harvard. Hitherto unpublished.
The Cottage | Earlswood Common | Surrey | June 5. 74.
Dear Mrs. Fields
Your letter 100 is very sweet to me. When I had half read the first page and was not quite sure as to the writer, I turned to the signature and found the sympathetic words all the more precious because they came from one whose brief presence had been enough to give me a strong interest in her. Such proofs of the far-off spiritual contact between us are a great help to me and are often needed to counterbalance depressing influences which arise within from perturbed health and without from the mixed conditions of our social life, in which it often seems that the noise and hurry -- the [too much] of everything -- which seems continually on the increase must almost nullify one's small individual efforts.
It is not for want of hope and belief in America as the scene of a great future, nor for want of real delight in the graceful kindliness which I have felt in all the distinguished natures from the United States with whom I have had any intercourse, that I give up the sight of the great New World. 101 And will you, please, tell dear Mrs. Stowe, when you see her, that I am not failing in memory of her and her husband although as a correspondent I am dumb? My nervous energy has been much drawn upon by neuralgic pain, from unavoidable colds which beset me in this climate and I have little margin for any letter writing save such as business or rigorous courtesy demands.
I received the splendid photograph of her "Rabbi," and am proud to possess it.
Pray present my best regards to Mr. Fields. If it were not that I bear in mind how much he suffers from the voyage, I should hope that you would both find reason to come to Europe again. Mr. Lewes is one with me in pleasant recollections of all our intercourse with Mr. Fields and our pretty glimpses of you.
Believe me, dear Mrs. Fields,
Yours with high esteem
M. E. Lewes.
You see we are [en retraite,] and have escaped the turmoil of London. We came here three days ago. It is extremely difficult to get a permanent house such as we want in Kent or Surrey and we have been searching in vain for the last two years.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Annie [Mrs. James T.] Fields, Earlswood Common, 5 June 1874, 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/93509