GE to Mrs. William Cross, Earlswood Common, 14 June 1874
Title
GE to Mrs. William Cross, Earlswood Common, 14 June 1874
Title
GE to Mrs. William Cross, Earlswood Common, 14 June 1874
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. William Cross
Date(s)
- 1874-06-14
Place
Earlswood Common
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. William Cross, Earlswood Common, 14 June 1874
MS: Tinker Collection, Yale. Mostly published: Cross, III, 232-233.
The Cottage | Earlswood Common | June 14. 74.
My dear Mrs. Cross
I have so much trust in your love for us that I feel sure you will like to know of our happiness in the secure peace of the country, and the good we already experience in soul and body from the sweet breezes over hill and common, the delicious silence, and the unbroken spaces of the day. Just now the chill east wind has brought a little check to our pleasure in our long afternoon drives, and I could wish that Canon Kingsley and his fellow-worshippers of that harsh divinity could have it reserved entirely for themselves as a tribal god. 102 But we live in hope that the kindlier air which we revelled in for the first week after our arrival will by and by return. Meanwhile I am wearing winter clothing in this middle of June. Perhaps our wide common, which we delight in, gives us an extra share of breeze.
We think this neighbourhood so lovely that I must beg you to tell my nephew Johnnie we are in danger of settling here unless he makes haste to find us a house in your "country-side." 103 We have actually seen one that would do for us, if it were not for a vile, threatening board set up in an adjoining piece of land -- "To be let on building leases." The house is excellent, just spacious enough, the garden and shrubbery charming, the entrance gate taken care of by a convenient little lodge for the gardener, and the situation (but for that fatal board!) altogether agreeable and commodious. How shall we interpret this [dispensation]? Is the board put there specially to save us from settling so far away from you? And may we therefore rest in faith that Johnnie will find a house with undeniable charms, on high ground in a strictly rural neighbourhood (water and gas laid on nevertheless) to be vacant precisely this autumn?
By the way, Mr. Lewes says that he troubled you or some one of our family, with a book called "Papa's own Girl." I have just had a long letter from the authoress, 104 desiring my opinion of it, without a suspicion that I could have any reason for not eagerly devouring it immediately on its arrival. Has anyone at Weybridge read enough of it to decide whether it is good for anything? If it happened to be trash I would not occupy myself with answering her letter, which seems to indicate a self-estimate in no need of consolation.
My philosopher is writing away with double verve in a projecting window where he can see a beautiful green slope crowned and studded with large trees. I too have an agreeable corner in another room, but without any other view than a conservatory. Our house has the essentials of comfort, and we have reason to be contented with it.
I confess that my chief motive for writing about ourselves is to earn some news of you, which will not be denied me by one or other of the dear pairs of hands always ready to do a kindness. I hear the dishes rattling for luncheon, which will be the sweeter that we have not to receive Sunday visitors after it. Our Sunday is really a Sabbath now -- a day of thorough peace. But I shall get hungry for a sight of some of the Sunday visitors before the end of September.
I include all my family in a spiritual embrace and am
Always yours lovingly
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Tinker Collection, Yale. Mostly published: Cross, III, 232-233.
The Cottage | Earlswood Common | June 14. 74.
My dear Mrs. Cross
I have so much trust in your love for us that I feel sure you will like to know of our happiness in the secure peace of the country, and the good we already experience in soul and body from the sweet breezes over hill and common, the delicious silence, and the unbroken spaces of the day. Just now the chill east wind has brought a little check to our pleasure in our long afternoon drives, and I could wish that Canon Kingsley and his fellow-worshippers of that harsh divinity could have it reserved entirely for themselves as a tribal god. 102 But we live in hope that the kindlier air which we revelled in for the first week after our arrival will by and by return. Meanwhile I am wearing winter clothing in this middle of June. Perhaps our wide common, which we delight in, gives us an extra share of breeze.
We think this neighbourhood so lovely that I must beg you to tell my nephew Johnnie we are in danger of settling here unless he makes haste to find us a house in your "country-side." 103 We have actually seen one that would do for us, if it were not for a vile, threatening board set up in an adjoining piece of land -- "To be let on building leases." The house is excellent, just spacious enough, the garden and shrubbery charming, the entrance gate taken care of by a convenient little lodge for the gardener, and the situation (but for that fatal board!) altogether agreeable and commodious. How shall we interpret this [dispensation]? Is the board put there specially to save us from settling so far away from you? And may we therefore rest in faith that Johnnie will find a house with undeniable charms, on high ground in a strictly rural neighbourhood (water and gas laid on nevertheless) to be vacant precisely this autumn?
By the way, Mr. Lewes says that he troubled you or some one of our family, with a book called "Papa's own Girl." I have just had a long letter from the authoress, 104 desiring my opinion of it, without a suspicion that I could have any reason for not eagerly devouring it immediately on its arrival. Has anyone at Weybridge read enough of it to decide whether it is good for anything? If it happened to be trash I would not occupy myself with answering her letter, which seems to indicate a self-estimate in no need of consolation.
My philosopher is writing away with double verve in a projecting window where he can see a beautiful green slope crowned and studded with large trees. I too have an agreeable corner in another room, but without any other view than a conservatory. Our house has the essentials of comfort, and we have reason to be contented with it.
I confess that my chief motive for writing about ourselves is to earn some news of you, which will not be denied me by one or other of the dear pairs of hands always ready to do a kindness. I hear the dishes rattling for luncheon, which will be the sweeter that we have not to receive Sunday visitors after it. Our Sunday is really a Sabbath now -- a day of thorough peace. But I shall get hungry for a sight of some of the Sunday visitors before the end of September.
I include all my family in a spiritual embrace and am
Always yours lovingly
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. William Cross, Earlswood Common, 14 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/93717