John Blackwood to GHL, London, 28 May 1857
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, London, 28 May 1857
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, London, 28 May 1857
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1857-05-28
Place
London
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GHL, London, 28 May 1857
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extract published: John Blackwood, p. 40.
Jermyn St. | May 28/57.
My Dear Lewes
Yours of the 24th with the touching address of Rosa Cottage reached me today. I wrote to you about a week or ten days ago addressing to St. Heliers and requesting on the cover that if you were not at the Capital of Jersey, the Postmaster should endeavour to find out a maniac answering to your name hammering rocks and dissecting Sea weeds on the shore. I have no doubt the note has reached you and if not you will find it at the Post office, St. Heliers. As far as I recollect there was nothing in my letter except compliments to George Eliot and also to you upon the opening of your new Sea Side Studies.
I am sorry that in moving south I find a still broader piece of water than the Tweed between George Eliot and myself, but I am so confident of his merits that I am content to wait for the confirmation which preconceived ideas of intellect derive from personal acquaintance.
Any one really reading the last part of Gilfil will I think be affected by the cry of love pervading it. That little girl's face comes before me with wonderful distinctness. When I expressed a doubt about the dagger matter[?] I did not mean that it should be, as George Eliot supposed I intended, 874 a dream that "I dreamed in my bed" (a phrase of my precocious infant 20 months old) but a passing dream or thought in the mind not carried the length of actually getting hold of the dagger. I think now however that the author was quite right in his plan.
I have seen a good many literary men since I came up to Town, but I cannot say that I have had anything like literary conversation, but I daresay I shall gather a tolerable idea of the general interest in George Eliot before I leave.
My brother who sent me your letter from Edinburgh will I daresay have sent your Magazines all right, but in case of accidents I send another copy from this. In his note he maintains that Aytoun admits that he was quite wrong in his estimate of the powers of the author of Scenes of Clerical Life and expresses great admiration for the conclusion of Gilfil.
Shall I pay the honorarium into your account?
Hoping soon to hear from you and also from G.E. with the next Tale, I am
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
I hope you will be able to read this note. An interesting discussion about Derby and Oaks etc. has been going on at my back all the time I have been writing.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extract published: John Blackwood, p. 40.
Jermyn St. | May 28/57.
My Dear Lewes
Yours of the 24th with the touching address of Rosa Cottage reached me today. I wrote to you about a week or ten days ago addressing to St. Heliers and requesting on the cover that if you were not at the Capital of Jersey, the Postmaster should endeavour to find out a maniac answering to your name hammering rocks and dissecting Sea weeds on the shore. I have no doubt the note has reached you and if not you will find it at the Post office, St. Heliers. As far as I recollect there was nothing in my letter except compliments to George Eliot and also to you upon the opening of your new Sea Side Studies.
I am sorry that in moving south I find a still broader piece of water than the Tweed between George Eliot and myself, but I am so confident of his merits that I am content to wait for the confirmation which preconceived ideas of intellect derive from personal acquaintance.
Any one really reading the last part of Gilfil will I think be affected by the cry of love pervading it. That little girl's face comes before me with wonderful distinctness. When I expressed a doubt about the dagger matter[?] I did not mean that it should be, as George Eliot supposed I intended, 874 a dream that "I dreamed in my bed" (a phrase of my precocious infant 20 months old) but a passing dream or thought in the mind not carried the length of actually getting hold of the dagger. I think now however that the author was quite right in his plan.
I have seen a good many literary men since I came up to Town, but I cannot say that I have had anything like literary conversation, but I daresay I shall gather a tolerable idea of the general interest in George Eliot before I leave.
My brother who sent me your letter from Edinburgh will I daresay have sent your Magazines all right, but in case of accidents I send another copy from this. In his note he maintains that Aytoun admits that he was quite wrong in his estimate of the powers of the author of Scenes of Clerical Life and expresses great admiration for the conclusion of Gilfil.
Shall I pay the honorarium into your account?
Hoping soon to hear from you and also from G.E. with the next Tale, I am
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
I hope you will be able to read this note. An interesting discussion about Derby and Oaks etc. has been going on at my back all the time I have been writing.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GHL, London, 28 May 1857, 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/95435