John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 23 September 1861
Title
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 23 September 1861
Title
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 23 September 1861
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1861-09-23
Place
St. Andrews
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 23 September 1861
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum | St. Andrews | N.B.
September 23/61.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
I have the pleasure of inclosing a check One Thousand Pounds 'a31000 making the 'a31600 due to you for the 8000 printed of Silas Marner. 843
Willie was not far wrong in stopping the order previously, as the Scotch Banks charge 21 days interest for remitting money to London, a little piece of plunder kept up from the remote days when it took 3 weeks to travel between the two towns. It is very shabby in my bank to charge it to me, as they regularly sack the 21 days on all the large amount of Sassenach gold that I yearly draw down from London, and their refusal to give the small quid for the great quo excited Willie's ire.
I would have answered your pleasant and most interesting letter of the 12th 844 but I waited daily expecting my coffers in London to be filled, but I suppose the bad times make people slow in paying up their accounts.
I have been seriously considering what you say about purchasing the entire copyright of your novels and am very much disposed for the speculation. It is rather puzzling to say what should be offered in fairness to one party or the other but the first time I am again in Edinburgh I shall make you an offer which will I hope meet your views, and in the meantime I have told Mr. Simpson to be making calculations for cheap editions etc. He rather inclines to the cheap edition at once now, and so do I. The 12/- editions must have cut into the 6/- class passengers.
However I wish to have some further talk with Mr. Simpson and Willie before coming to a definite decision. I think I shall make these two Mahomets come to the Mountain instead of going over to the abominable confusion of 45 George St. I am changing my sitting room there in obedience to the orders of the most imperative of Doctors, my friend Burt, 845 who tells me in plain terms that I and most of the men of business he knows are idiots for passing their days in a close confined room when they can afford a better, so I am now moving to what was the drawing [room] of the house, a magnificent "hairy apartment" as the London lodging house keepers say. It is rather comical that this same despot Burt effected a similar revolution for Murray 846 in Albemarle St. The alterations however are no joke and will hardly be finished until I go home for the winter.
I hope most sincerely that the good effects of the Malvern treatment continue with Lewes and you since your return to London and that I shall soon have good accounts both of health and work. My temptations to idleness here are dreadful. The golfing and shooting are both good and White and Aytoun are staying with us, so that in doors also the fun is irresistible. Lewes got a glimpse of White 847 and I shall bring him to you on the first opportunity. He is as delightful at breakfast as at dinner and keeps us all laughing from morning to night without the slightest strain to himself or his hearers. The beauty of his conversation is the perpetual play of fancy and the sort of give-and-take, and one may delude oneself into the idea that one has said half the good things oneself. Those London dining out conversationalists are my abomination, and he is the most delightful contrast to them.
There goes the dressing bell so I must wind up.
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum | St. Andrews | N.B.
September 23/61.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
I have the pleasure of inclosing a check One Thousand Pounds 'a31000 making the 'a31600 due to you for the 8000 printed of Silas Marner. 843
Willie was not far wrong in stopping the order previously, as the Scotch Banks charge 21 days interest for remitting money to London, a little piece of plunder kept up from the remote days when it took 3 weeks to travel between the two towns. It is very shabby in my bank to charge it to me, as they regularly sack the 21 days on all the large amount of Sassenach gold that I yearly draw down from London, and their refusal to give the small quid for the great quo excited Willie's ire.
I would have answered your pleasant and most interesting letter of the 12th 844 but I waited daily expecting my coffers in London to be filled, but I suppose the bad times make people slow in paying up their accounts.
I have been seriously considering what you say about purchasing the entire copyright of your novels and am very much disposed for the speculation. It is rather puzzling to say what should be offered in fairness to one party or the other but the first time I am again in Edinburgh I shall make you an offer which will I hope meet your views, and in the meantime I have told Mr. Simpson to be making calculations for cheap editions etc. He rather inclines to the cheap edition at once now, and so do I. The 12/- editions must have cut into the 6/- class passengers.
However I wish to have some further talk with Mr. Simpson and Willie before coming to a definite decision. I think I shall make these two Mahomets come to the Mountain instead of going over to the abominable confusion of 45 George St. I am changing my sitting room there in obedience to the orders of the most imperative of Doctors, my friend Burt, 845 who tells me in plain terms that I and most of the men of business he knows are idiots for passing their days in a close confined room when they can afford a better, so I am now moving to what was the drawing [room] of the house, a magnificent "hairy apartment" as the London lodging house keepers say. It is rather comical that this same despot Burt effected a similar revolution for Murray 846 in Albemarle St. The alterations however are no joke and will hardly be finished until I go home for the winter.
I hope most sincerely that the good effects of the Malvern treatment continue with Lewes and you since your return to London and that I shall soon have good accounts both of health and work. My temptations to idleness here are dreadful. The golfing and shooting are both good and White and Aytoun are staying with us, so that in doors also the fun is irresistible. Lewes got a glimpse of White 847 and I shall bring him to you on the first opportunity. He is as delightful at breakfast as at dinner and keeps us all laughing from morning to night without the slightest strain to himself or his hearers. The beauty of his conversation is the perpetual play of fancy and the sort of give-and-take, and one may delude oneself into the idea that one has said half the good things oneself. Those London dining out conversationalists are my abomination, and he is the most delightful contrast to them.
There goes the dressing bell so I must wind up.
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 23 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/95331