John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 6 October 1858
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 6 October 1858
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 6 October 1858
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1858-10-06
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 6 October 1858
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letter Book, National Library of Scotland. Brief extract published: II, 488, n. 1.
Edinburgh October 7th 1858.
My Dear Lewes
I have the pleasure of enclosing a cheque £20 in acknowledgment of your excellent little treatise on Animal Heat. 403 It is really very good.
The prospectus of the great work 404 reads most appetisingly; you are quite an artist at the construction of such things. Towards the end of this month my tent will be permanently pitched in Edinburgh. I shall then have calculations made and make the best proposition I can to you for our joint interests in the Physiology of C. Life. My brother and I are in great hopes that it may be a permanently successful book and no efforts shall be wanting on our part to insure that very desirable end. You are doing your part admirably.
George Eliot would I daresay show you what I said of Adam Vol. 2. It is very difficult indeed to judge of a second volume as one does not read it with the eager curiosity with which one opens the first, or the rapid haste with which one rushes on to the finish, as for example had Vols. 2 and 3 been before me I am sure that I would have read them in less time than I took to Vol. 2 by itself. There can be no mistake about the merits however and I am not sure whether I expressed myself sufficiently warmly. But you know that I am not equal to the abandon of expression which distinguishes the large hearted school of Critics.
I am only here for a couple of days and driving through as much as I can. At St. Andrews we had a visit for some days from Stanfield and Roberts, 405 two excellent men as well as great artists, and I expect the former will give you some idea of the ancient city of St. Regulus 406 on the walls of the Academy next year. You ask whether the excitement of Golf can equal that of Mollusc hunting; I can only say that it transcends anything else that I have tried and all Golfers are of the same opinion. When the game comes to a crisis the boldest hold their breath for a time. I have seen the best of us pale and the voice affected among others gallant Sir Hope Grant 407 a first rate Golfer. Excuse this outbreak and with best regards to G.E.
Believe me
I am yours truly
John Blackwood.
G. H. Lewes Esq.
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letter Book, National Library of Scotland. Brief extract published: II, 488, n. 1.
Edinburgh October 7th 1858.
My Dear Lewes
I have the pleasure of enclosing a cheque £20 in acknowledgment of your excellent little treatise on Animal Heat. 403 It is really very good.
The prospectus of the great work 404 reads most appetisingly; you are quite an artist at the construction of such things. Towards the end of this month my tent will be permanently pitched in Edinburgh. I shall then have calculations made and make the best proposition I can to you for our joint interests in the Physiology of C. Life. My brother and I are in great hopes that it may be a permanently successful book and no efforts shall be wanting on our part to insure that very desirable end. You are doing your part admirably.
George Eliot would I daresay show you what I said of Adam Vol. 2. It is very difficult indeed to judge of a second volume as one does not read it with the eager curiosity with which one opens the first, or the rapid haste with which one rushes on to the finish, as for example had Vols. 2 and 3 been before me I am sure that I would have read them in less time than I took to Vol. 2 by itself. There can be no mistake about the merits however and I am not sure whether I expressed myself sufficiently warmly. But you know that I am not equal to the abandon of expression which distinguishes the large hearted school of Critics.
I am only here for a couple of days and driving through as much as I can. At St. Andrews we had a visit for some days from Stanfield and Roberts, 405 two excellent men as well as great artists, and I expect the former will give you some idea of the ancient city of St. Regulus 406 on the walls of the Academy next year. You ask whether the excitement of Golf can equal that of Mollusc hunting; I can only say that it transcends anything else that I have tried and all Golfers are of the same opinion. When the game comes to a crisis the boldest hold their breath for a time. I have seen the best of us pale and the voice affected among others gallant Sir Hope Grant 407 a first rate Golfer. Excuse this outbreak and with best regards to G.E.
Believe me
I am yours truly
John Blackwood.
G. H. Lewes Esq.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 6 October 1858, 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/95424