GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [11 April 1859]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [11 April 1859]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [11 April 1859]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1859-04-11
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [11 April 1859]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Adam Bede. April 11. 1859. Extracts published: Cross, II, 99.
Holly Lodge | Saturday Evening.
Dear Sara
We are just come home from the Isle of Wight! Whither we rushed in desperation after Mr. Lewes had suffered days and days from a burning head and burning mouth -- the symptoms, as the doctors tell him, of debility and indigestion. He hoped that a sniff of the sea breezes, idleness and change of scene might serve as a better tonic than doctors' stuff, and they really seem to have done him good, though we have been absent only four days. 94
The very day you wrote we were driving in an open carriage from Ryde to the Sandrock Hotel 95 -- taking in a month's delight in the space of five hours. Such skies -- such songs of larks -- such beds of primroses!
I am quite well now -- set up by iron and quinine, and polished off by the sea-breeze. We are not yet quite settled with our new servant, but hope to be so in a few days.
Among the huge heap of letters lying ready for us tonight was one from Mrs. Call, saying Mr. Call is going to Hofwyl shortly -- to see and inquire, I imagine, before determining about Frank. Very wise.
What news of your new book? Not stagnating, I hope, under the languors of Spring. I have lost my young dislike of that season, and am as glad of it as the birds and plants are.
Mr. Lewes has read Adam Bede, and is as dithyrambic about it as others appear to be so I must refresh my soul with it now, as well as with the Spring tide. Mr. Liggins I remember as a vision of my childhood -- a tall black coated genteel young clergyman-in-embryo.
Ever thine
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Adam Bede. April 11. 1859. Extracts published: Cross, II, 99.
Holly Lodge | Saturday Evening.
Dear Sara
We are just come home from the Isle of Wight! Whither we rushed in desperation after Mr. Lewes had suffered days and days from a burning head and burning mouth -- the symptoms, as the doctors tell him, of debility and indigestion. He hoped that a sniff of the sea breezes, idleness and change of scene might serve as a better tonic than doctors' stuff, and they really seem to have done him good, though we have been absent only four days. 94
The very day you wrote we were driving in an open carriage from Ryde to the Sandrock Hotel 95 -- taking in a month's delight in the space of five hours. Such skies -- such songs of larks -- such beds of primroses!
I am quite well now -- set up by iron and quinine, and polished off by the sea-breeze. We are not yet quite settled with our new servant, but hope to be so in a few days.
Among the huge heap of letters lying ready for us tonight was one from Mrs. Call, saying Mr. Call is going to Hofwyl shortly -- to see and inquire, I imagine, before determining about Frank. Very wise.
What news of your new book? Not stagnating, I hope, under the languors of Spring. I have lost my young dislike of that season, and am as glad of it as the birds and plants are.
Mr. Lewes has read Adam Bede, and is as dithyrambic about it as others appear to be so I must refresh my soul with it now, as well as with the Spring tide. Mr. Liggins I remember as a vision of my childhood -- a tall black coated genteel young clergyman-in-embryo.
Ever thine
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [11 April 1859], 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/94120