GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 18 September 1861
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 18 September 1861
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 18 September 1861
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1861-09-18
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 18 September 1861
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, II, 316.
Blandford Square, | N.W.
September 18. 1861.
Dear Sara
It is a satisfaction to hear from you, even though you can't tell me anything joyful, for I like better to know than to be ignorant about you. Let us cherish the hope that this will be the last move carrying any regret with it, and that the next will be into the pretty cottage again. I enter into your and Cara's furniture adjusting labours and your enjoyment of church and chapel afterwards. One wants a temple besides the outdoor temple -- a place where human beings do not ramble apart, but meet with a common impulse.
Your letter reached me at lovely Malvern, where we have been trying the water-cure, or rather initiating a trial of it, for we only staid eleven days. But we are come back in excellent spirits. So far the evidence is decidedly in favour of internal and external washing against tonics of any other sort. Mr. Lewes is wonderfully strengthened even by one week's packings, bathings, cold-water draughts, and extensive walking.
You remember our visit to Malvern 17 or 18 years ago? 841 It is "not the same but another" Malvern now, in everything except the green hills and the wide Happy Valley. I have hardly ever seen an English watering-place which has sprung up rapidly, where there is so little ugly building. Except the little nucleus of shops, the place is almost entirely made up of pretty or handsome houses, many of them of rich red brick in the Elizabethan style, surrounded by charming grounds. But perhaps some of you have seen it in its later stages.
I hope you have some agreeable lens through which you can look at circumstances -- good health, at least. And really, I begin to think people who are robust are in a position to pity all the rest of the world, except, indeed, that there are certain secrets taught only by pain which are perhaps worth the purchase. Mr. Lewes was not the expansive writer on dyspepsia. 842 I fancy that writer has been already cured. With best love to all
Ever yours
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, II, 316.
Blandford Square, | N.W.
September 18. 1861.
Dear Sara
It is a satisfaction to hear from you, even though you can't tell me anything joyful, for I like better to know than to be ignorant about you. Let us cherish the hope that this will be the last move carrying any regret with it, and that the next will be into the pretty cottage again. I enter into your and Cara's furniture adjusting labours and your enjoyment of church and chapel afterwards. One wants a temple besides the outdoor temple -- a place where human beings do not ramble apart, but meet with a common impulse.
Your letter reached me at lovely Malvern, where we have been trying the water-cure, or rather initiating a trial of it, for we only staid eleven days. But we are come back in excellent spirits. So far the evidence is decidedly in favour of internal and external washing against tonics of any other sort. Mr. Lewes is wonderfully strengthened even by one week's packings, bathings, cold-water draughts, and extensive walking.
You remember our visit to Malvern 17 or 18 years ago? 841 It is "not the same but another" Malvern now, in everything except the green hills and the wide Happy Valley. I have hardly ever seen an English watering-place which has sprung up rapidly, where there is so little ugly building. Except the little nucleus of shops, the place is almost entirely made up of pretty or handsome houses, many of them of rich red brick in the Elizabethan style, surrounded by charming grounds. But perhaps some of you have seen it in its later stages.
I hope you have some agreeable lens through which you can look at circumstances -- good health, at least. And really, I begin to think people who are robust are in a position to pity all the rest of the world, except, indeed, that there are certain secrets taught only by pain which are perhaps worth the purchase. Mr. Lewes was not the expansive writer on dyspepsia. 842 I fancy that writer has been already cured. With best love to all
Ever yours
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 18 September 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/94005