GHL to Mrs. George James Howard, Earlswood Common, 27 July 1874
Title
GHL to Mrs. George James Howard, Earlswood Common, 27 July 1874
Title
GHL to Mrs. George James Howard, Earlswood Common, 27 July 1874
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Mrs. George James Howard
Date(s)
- 1874-07-27
Place
Earlswood Common
Letter Content
GHL to Mrs. George James Howard, Earlswood Common, 27 July 1874
MS: Mr. George Howard.
The Cottage, Earlswood Common
Red Hill, 27 July 74.
Sweet Person!
Reprehensible Person!
With the faithlessness of our sex you have fulfilled your promise. What promise, saith you? That Sunday afternoon 249 when good-bye was said, did I not ask you to write and let us know how it went with you on your journey; and when with misplaced modesty you exclaimed "As if you would care for a letter from me!" did I not quash that remark with a strong expression, and did you not then and there promise that letters should be written?
Since then what reams of cold pressed have you not despatched! The Post Office has been forced to place on an extra carrier for this beat, and the two have struck for higher wages, the mass of your letters being more than they can be expected to deliver at the price! Reprehensible Person!
And out of all these letters I gather not a syllable as to your journey and what befel you -- (Palgrave 250 alluded to your [little accident] as if I knew all about it.) what sketches Howard made, and how dull you found it being together. Did you find it dull? We are constantly threatened by some of our friends when we speak of retiring to our perfect solitude that we shall "find it terribly dull." But we are too dull to find it out. Isn't that your case too? Doesn't Love create its own world -- and that world perhaps on the whole not inferior to "the best society"? Isn't the sweet monotony your idea of Paradise? -- Whether it is or isn't, Polly and I would both like to hear how your honeymoon slipped by.
It wouldn't more than break the postman's back if you were to add some news about yourselves and Burne Jones and Mignon. We have seen no one; and scarcely heard from any one. Our solitude will be unbroken till the end of September when I don't know what we shall do for the fortnight or three weeks of October when the Priory is cleaned and restored and recarpeted; but somewhere we shall be, and at home again in November. This lovely country is greatly enjoyed by us, but my health is no better than in town and Polly's not much. But her mind is more in repose, and that must tell.
We were much pained at the sudden death of Lady Amberley 251 which came upon us all the more startlingly because she looked so very robust when we saw her a few weeks before. It must be unspeakably sad for him.
Polly doesn't know I'm writing or she would send her love to you both -- but I suppose my authority will suffice?
Ever faithfully yours
G. H. Lewes.
MS: Mr. George Howard.
The Cottage, Earlswood Common
Red Hill, 27 July 74.
Sweet Person!
Reprehensible Person!
With the faithlessness of our sex you have fulfilled your promise. What promise, saith you? That Sunday afternoon 249 when good-bye was said, did I not ask you to write and let us know how it went with you on your journey; and when with misplaced modesty you exclaimed "As if you would care for a letter from me!" did I not quash that remark with a strong expression, and did you not then and there promise that letters should be written?
Since then what reams of cold pressed have you not despatched! The Post Office has been forced to place on an extra carrier for this beat, and the two have struck for higher wages, the mass of your letters being more than they can be expected to deliver at the price! Reprehensible Person!
And out of all these letters I gather not a syllable as to your journey and what befel you -- (Palgrave 250 alluded to your [little accident] as if I knew all about it.) what sketches Howard made, and how dull you found it being together. Did you find it dull? We are constantly threatened by some of our friends when we speak of retiring to our perfect solitude that we shall "find it terribly dull." But we are too dull to find it out. Isn't that your case too? Doesn't Love create its own world -- and that world perhaps on the whole not inferior to "the best society"? Isn't the sweet monotony your idea of Paradise? -- Whether it is or isn't, Polly and I would both like to hear how your honeymoon slipped by.
It wouldn't more than break the postman's back if you were to add some news about yourselves and Burne Jones and Mignon. We have seen no one; and scarcely heard from any one. Our solitude will be unbroken till the end of September when I don't know what we shall do for the fortnight or three weeks of October when the Priory is cleaned and restored and recarpeted; but somewhere we shall be, and at home again in November. This lovely country is greatly enjoyed by us, but my health is no better than in town and Polly's not much. But her mind is more in repose, and that must tell.
We were much pained at the sudden death of Lady Amberley 251 which came upon us all the more startlingly because she looked so very robust when we saw her a few weeks before. It must be unspeakably sad for him.
Polly doesn't know I'm writing or she would send her love to you both -- but I suppose my authority will suffice?
Ever faithfully yours
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Mrs. George James Howard, Earlswood Common, 27 July 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/94956