GE to Theodosia [Mrs. Thomas Adolphus] Trollope, London, [10 December 1861]
Title
GE to Theodosia [Mrs. Thomas Adolphus] Trollope, London, [10 December 1861]
Title
GE to Theodosia [Mrs. Thomas Adolphus] Trollope, London, [10 December 1861]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Theodosia [Mrs. Thomas Adolphus] Trollope
Date(s)
- 1861-12-10
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Theodosia [Mrs. Thomas Adolphus] Trollope, London, [10 December 1861]
MS: Parrish Collection, Princeton. Published: T. A. Trollope, What I Remember, 2d ed., 2 vols., 1887, II, 309-311.
Dear Friends
Writing letters, or asking for them, is not always the way to make one's memory agreeable, but you are not among those people who shudder at letters, since you did say you would like to hear from us, and let us hear from you, occasionally.
I have no good news to tell about myself, but to have my husband well again and enjoying his work is quite enough happiness to fall to one woman's share in this world where the stock of happiness is so moderate and the claimants so many. He is deep in Aristotle's Natural Science, as the first step in a History of Science which he has for a long while been hoping that he should be able to write; so you will understand his demand for brown folios. Indeed he is beginning to have a slight contempt for authors sufficiently known to the vulgar to be inserted in Biographical Dictionaries. Hermolaus Barbarus is one of those distinguished by omission in some chief works of that kind, and we learned to our surprize, from a Don at Cambridge, that he had never heard the name. Let us hope there is an Olympus for forgotten authors.
Our trial of the water-cure at Malvern made us think with all the more emphasis of the possible effect on a too delicate and fragile friend at Florence. 891 It really helped to mend George, and as I hope the Florentine hydropathist may not be a quack as Dr. Gully at Malvern certainly is, I shall be disappointed if there is no good effect to be traced to judicious "packing" and sitz baths, that you can tell us of. -- Did Beatrice enjoy her month's dissipation at Leghorn? And is the voice prospering? Don't let her quite forget us. We make rather a feeble attempt at music Saturday evenings, having a new grand piano which stimulates musical desires; but we want a good violin and violoncello -- difficult to be found among amateurs. Having no sunshine, one needs music all the more. It would be difficult for you to imagine very truthfully what sort of atmosphere we have been living in, here in London, for the last month -- warm, heavy, dingy grey. I have seen some sunshine once -- in a dream.
Do tell us all you can about yourselves. It seems only the other day that we were shaking you by the hand, and all details will be lit up as if by your very voice and looks.
Say a kind word for me some time to the bright-eyed lady 892 by whose side I sat in your balcony the evening of the National F'eate. At this moment I cannot recall her name. We are going now to the British Museum to read 893 -- a painful way of getting knowledge. If I had Aladdin's lamp I should certainly use it to get books served up to me at a moment's notice. It may be better to search for truth than to have it at hand without seeking, but with books I should take the other alternative. Ever yours
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Parrish Collection, Princeton. Published: T. A. Trollope, What I Remember, 2d ed., 2 vols., 1887, II, 309-311.
Dear Friends
Writing letters, or asking for them, is not always the way to make one's memory agreeable, but you are not among those people who shudder at letters, since you did say you would like to hear from us, and let us hear from you, occasionally.
I have no good news to tell about myself, but to have my husband well again and enjoying his work is quite enough happiness to fall to one woman's share in this world where the stock of happiness is so moderate and the claimants so many. He is deep in Aristotle's Natural Science, as the first step in a History of Science which he has for a long while been hoping that he should be able to write; so you will understand his demand for brown folios. Indeed he is beginning to have a slight contempt for authors sufficiently known to the vulgar to be inserted in Biographical Dictionaries. Hermolaus Barbarus is one of those distinguished by omission in some chief works of that kind, and we learned to our surprize, from a Don at Cambridge, that he had never heard the name. Let us hope there is an Olympus for forgotten authors.
Our trial of the water-cure at Malvern made us think with all the more emphasis of the possible effect on a too delicate and fragile friend at Florence. 891 It really helped to mend George, and as I hope the Florentine hydropathist may not be a quack as Dr. Gully at Malvern certainly is, I shall be disappointed if there is no good effect to be traced to judicious "packing" and sitz baths, that you can tell us of. -- Did Beatrice enjoy her month's dissipation at Leghorn? And is the voice prospering? Don't let her quite forget us. We make rather a feeble attempt at music Saturday evenings, having a new grand piano which stimulates musical desires; but we want a good violin and violoncello -- difficult to be found among amateurs. Having no sunshine, one needs music all the more. It would be difficult for you to imagine very truthfully what sort of atmosphere we have been living in, here in London, for the last month -- warm, heavy, dingy grey. I have seen some sunshine once -- in a dream.
Do tell us all you can about yourselves. It seems only the other day that we were shaking you by the hand, and all details will be lit up as if by your very voice and looks.
Say a kind word for me some time to the bright-eyed lady 892 by whose side I sat in your balcony the evening of the National F'eate. At this moment I cannot recall her name. We are going now to the British Museum to read 893 -- a painful way of getting knowledge. If I had Aladdin's lamp I should certainly use it to get books served up to me at a moment's notice. It may be better to search for truth than to have it at hand without seeking, but with books I should take the other alternative. Ever yours
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Theodosia [Mrs. Thomas Adolphus] Trollope, London, [10 December 1861], 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/93699