GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 19 June 1861
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 19 June 1861
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 19 June 1861
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1861-06-19
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 19 June 1861
MS: Yale. Published: Cross, II, 307-308.
Blandford Square, | N.W.
June 19th 1861.
Dear Sara
Some of one's first thoughts on coming home after an absence of much length are about the friends one had left behind. What has happened to them in the meantime, and how are they now? And yet, though we came home last Friday evening, I have not had the quiet moment for writing these thoughts until this morning. I know I need put no questions to you, who always divine what I want to be told.
We have had a perfect journey except as regards health -- a large, large exception. The cold winds alternating with the hot sun -- or some other cause -- laid very unkind hold on Mr. Lewes early after our arrival at Florence and he was ailing with sore throat and cough continually, so that he has come back looking thin and delicate, though the ailments seem to be nearly passed away.
I wish you could have shared the pleasures of our last expedition from Florence -- to the Monasteries of Camaldoli and La Vernia: I think it was just the sort of thing you would have entered into with thorough zest. Imagine the Franciscans of La Vernia, which is perched up on an abrupt rock, rising sheer on the summit of a mountain, turning out at midnight (and when there is deep snow for the feet to plunge in,) and chanting their slow way up to the little chapel perched at a lofty distance above their already lofty monastery! This they do every night throughout the year, in all weathers.
Give my loving greeting to Cara and Mr. Bray, and then sit down and write me one of your charming letters making a little picture of everybody and everything about you. God bless you -- is the old-fashioned summing up of sincere affection, without the least smirk of studied civility, and it sums up the feelings of your
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Published: Cross, II, 307-308.
Blandford Square, | N.W.
June 19th 1861.
Dear Sara
Some of one's first thoughts on coming home after an absence of much length are about the friends one had left behind. What has happened to them in the meantime, and how are they now? And yet, though we came home last Friday evening, I have not had the quiet moment for writing these thoughts until this morning. I know I need put no questions to you, who always divine what I want to be told.
We have had a perfect journey except as regards health -- a large, large exception. The cold winds alternating with the hot sun -- or some other cause -- laid very unkind hold on Mr. Lewes early after our arrival at Florence and he was ailing with sore throat and cough continually, so that he has come back looking thin and delicate, though the ailments seem to be nearly passed away.
I wish you could have shared the pleasures of our last expedition from Florence -- to the Monasteries of Camaldoli and La Vernia: I think it was just the sort of thing you would have entered into with thorough zest. Imagine the Franciscans of La Vernia, which is perched up on an abrupt rock, rising sheer on the summit of a mountain, turning out at midnight (and when there is deep snow for the feet to plunge in,) and chanting their slow way up to the little chapel perched at a lofty distance above their already lofty monastery! This they do every night throughout the year, in all weathers.
Give my loving greeting to Cara and Mr. Bray, and then sit down and write me one of your charming letters making a little picture of everybody and everything about you. God bless you -- is the old-fashioned summing up of sincere affection, without the least smirk of studied civility, and it sums up the feelings of your
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 19 June 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/94006