John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 26 April 1866
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 26 April 1866
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 26 April 1866
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1866-04-26
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 26 April 1866
MS: National Library of Scotland, which has also a copy in George Simpson's hand. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | April 26/66.
My Dear Madam
I most heartily respond to the feelings expressed in your gratifying note and do rejoice in resuming old relations with you. It quite takes me back to the days when Adam Bede won the Derby.
The more I think over these two volumes of Felix Holt the more I am impressed. Every individual or group of individuals says something to the purpose. I paused over every page as I read lest I should lose some of the exquisite flavour.
As I turned page after page passage after passage struck me as one that I would quote with admiration when I wrote to you about the book, but it would take a longer letter than I ever wrote to give even a sprinkling of these gems.
Mrs. Transome and her maid 432 are a perfect picture, and the description of the managing old lady's feelings when her son is so cool and taking the reins out of her hands and all her hopes are blasted 433 is so painfully true. What a group are the old minister, Esther, and Felix in that dingy little house with Mrs. Holt like a comic chorus in the background! 434
I am charmed with Esther and desperately anxious about her future.
I enjoyed her turning the tables on her mentor by laughing at his French accent. 435 How often one sees that sort of thing. It is like the House of Commons the other day laughing at Bright for talking of the Pittchley. 436 How the obstinate young radical did not fall at Esther's feet when she "tut her finger" 437 passes my comprehension. That is a touch beyond all praise. Jermyn's mistake of trying to soothe another by praising himself is good. 438 Who has not occasionally when consulting a friend under a difficulty been cheered by a lucid explanation of how much more cleverly he (the friend) would have arranged matters?
Your side scenes are inimitable. One assists at them and is present in the servants' hall, the public, and in that saddler, the smell of whose leather is associated with the idea of a pleasant gossip. 439 The smell of the leather and the feathers in the old golf ball maker's shop is associated in my mind to this day with elevating talks about "the great game" although for 20 years the golf balls have been made of gutta percha. That retired London tradesman 440 is a jewel, and it is marvellous how you invent all those life-like conversations of the town worthies of every degree.
Mr. Chubb with his id'e9e and croyant faire son 'e9loge in explaining his sordid views to Felix is fine. 441 When you mentioned the death of a possible beneficiary affecting an entail I thought you must have been consulting a lawyer, and I am glad to hear that it is so.
I say nothing about the plot as I think it is wrong to hazard speculations to an author (unless in conversation perhaps when false impressions can be corrected on the spot), but I need not tell you how anxiously I look for the upshot of the Drama in the third volume. I am uneasy as to what Mrs. Transome has done. Poor Felix is in a terrible fix at the end of the 2d volume and you pile up the evidence against him to such an extent that it is difficult to see how his innocence is to be satisfactorily proved. However you wield the wand of an enchanter. I inclose a slip which according to Lewes' suggestion I insert in the forthcoming number of the Magazine. I found the ever thoughtful Mr. Simpson had provided paper for the purpose. I burst out laughing when he told me he had done so. My nephew and he have been reading bits and are in a high state of delight. The former I think has nearly finished. I hope you will approve of my quoting the motto in the advertisement. 442 I think it gives the key note beautifully.
I am sorry to hear from Lewes that he is poorly. The east winds in Edin[burg]h at this season are not conducive to health and I have been very much out of sorts myself for the last six weeks, but Doctor George Eliot has done me a world of good. If I do not write you a long letter of criticism my silence is not "barren." I am "brooding over the full nest" of good things in Felix Holt.
Again congratulating you and hoping that the resumption of our old relations may be a source of pleasure and profit to all concerned, I am
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
I had nearly forgot to say how good your politics are. As far as I see yet, I suspect I am a radical of the Felix Holt breed, and so was my father before me. 443
MS: National Library of Scotland, which has also a copy in George Simpson's hand. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | April 26/66.
My Dear Madam
I most heartily respond to the feelings expressed in your gratifying note and do rejoice in resuming old relations with you. It quite takes me back to the days when Adam Bede won the Derby.
The more I think over these two volumes of Felix Holt the more I am impressed. Every individual or group of individuals says something to the purpose. I paused over every page as I read lest I should lose some of the exquisite flavour.
As I turned page after page passage after passage struck me as one that I would quote with admiration when I wrote to you about the book, but it would take a longer letter than I ever wrote to give even a sprinkling of these gems.
Mrs. Transome and her maid 432 are a perfect picture, and the description of the managing old lady's feelings when her son is so cool and taking the reins out of her hands and all her hopes are blasted 433 is so painfully true. What a group are the old minister, Esther, and Felix in that dingy little house with Mrs. Holt like a comic chorus in the background! 434
I am charmed with Esther and desperately anxious about her future.
I enjoyed her turning the tables on her mentor by laughing at his French accent. 435 How often one sees that sort of thing. It is like the House of Commons the other day laughing at Bright for talking of the Pittchley. 436 How the obstinate young radical did not fall at Esther's feet when she "tut her finger" 437 passes my comprehension. That is a touch beyond all praise. Jermyn's mistake of trying to soothe another by praising himself is good. 438 Who has not occasionally when consulting a friend under a difficulty been cheered by a lucid explanation of how much more cleverly he (the friend) would have arranged matters?
Your side scenes are inimitable. One assists at them and is present in the servants' hall, the public, and in that saddler, the smell of whose leather is associated with the idea of a pleasant gossip. 439 The smell of the leather and the feathers in the old golf ball maker's shop is associated in my mind to this day with elevating talks about "the great game" although for 20 years the golf balls have been made of gutta percha. That retired London tradesman 440 is a jewel, and it is marvellous how you invent all those life-like conversations of the town worthies of every degree.
Mr. Chubb with his id'e9e and croyant faire son 'e9loge in explaining his sordid views to Felix is fine. 441 When you mentioned the death of a possible beneficiary affecting an entail I thought you must have been consulting a lawyer, and I am glad to hear that it is so.
I say nothing about the plot as I think it is wrong to hazard speculations to an author (unless in conversation perhaps when false impressions can be corrected on the spot), but I need not tell you how anxiously I look for the upshot of the Drama in the third volume. I am uneasy as to what Mrs. Transome has done. Poor Felix is in a terrible fix at the end of the 2d volume and you pile up the evidence against him to such an extent that it is difficult to see how his innocence is to be satisfactorily proved. However you wield the wand of an enchanter. I inclose a slip which according to Lewes' suggestion I insert in the forthcoming number of the Magazine. I found the ever thoughtful Mr. Simpson had provided paper for the purpose. I burst out laughing when he told me he had done so. My nephew and he have been reading bits and are in a high state of delight. The former I think has nearly finished. I hope you will approve of my quoting the motto in the advertisement. 442 I think it gives the key note beautifully.
I am sorry to hear from Lewes that he is poorly. The east winds in Edin[burg]h at this season are not conducive to health and I have been very much out of sorts myself for the last six weeks, but Doctor George Eliot has done me a world of good. If I do not write you a long letter of criticism my silence is not "barren." I am "brooding over the full nest" of good things in Felix Holt.
Again congratulating you and hoping that the resumption of our old relations may be a source of pleasure and profit to all concerned, I am
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
I had nearly forgot to say how good your politics are. As far as I see yet, I suspect I am a radical of the Felix Holt breed, and so was my father before me. 443
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 26 April 1866, 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/95240