Mrs. Richmond Ritchie to Her Husband, London, 24 May 1880
Title
Mrs. Richmond Ritchie to Her Husband, London, 24 May 1880
Title
Mrs. Richmond Ritchie to Her Husband, London, 24 May 1880
Sender
Mrs. Richmond Ritchie
Recipient
Her Husband
Date(s)
- 1880-05-24
Place
London
Letter Content
Mrs. Richmond Ritchie to Her Husband, London, 24 May 1880
Text: Letters of Anne Thackeray Ritchie, ed. Hester Ritchie, London, John Murray, 1924, pp. 180-181.
I am still thrrrrrrilling over a conversation I had yesterday with Charles Lewes. Lionel Tennyson was here; he declared that his hair stood on end as he listened. Charles Lewes said he wished to tell me all about the wedding. He gave her away, and looks upon Mr. Cross as an elder brother.
I asked him if she had consulted him and he said no, not consulted, but that she had told him a few weeks ago. She confided in Paget who approved and told her that it wouldn't make any difference in her influence. Here I couldn't stand it, and said of course it would, but it was better to be genuine than to have influence, and that I didn't suppose she imagined herself inspired, though her clique did. It rather shocked him, and he mumbled a good deal. Young Lewes is generous about the marriage. He says he owes everything to her, his Gertrude included, and that his father had no grain of jealousy in him, and only would have wished her happy, and that she was of such a delicate fastidious nature that she couldn't be satisfied with anything but an ideal t'eate-'e0-t'eate. George Eliot said to him if she hadn't been human with feelings and failings like other people, how could she have written her books.
He talked about his own mother in confidence, but his eyes all filled up with tears over George Eliot, and altogether it was the strangest page of life I ever skimmed over. She is an honest woman, and goes in with all her might for what she is about.
She did not confide in Herbert Spencer. They have taken a beautiful house in Cheyne Walk.
Text: Letters of Anne Thackeray Ritchie, ed. Hester Ritchie, London, John Murray, 1924, pp. 180-181.
I am still thrrrrrrilling over a conversation I had yesterday with Charles Lewes. Lionel Tennyson was here; he declared that his hair stood on end as he listened. Charles Lewes said he wished to tell me all about the wedding. He gave her away, and looks upon Mr. Cross as an elder brother.
I asked him if she had consulted him and he said no, not consulted, but that she had told him a few weeks ago. She confided in Paget who approved and told her that it wouldn't make any difference in her influence. Here I couldn't stand it, and said of course it would, but it was better to be genuine than to have influence, and that I didn't suppose she imagined herself inspired, though her clique did. It rather shocked him, and he mumbled a good deal. Young Lewes is generous about the marriage. He says he owes everything to her, his Gertrude included, and that his father had no grain of jealousy in him, and only would have wished her happy, and that she was of such a delicate fastidious nature that she couldn't be satisfied with anything but an ideal t'eate-'e0-t'eate. George Eliot said to him if she hadn't been human with feelings and failings like other people, how could she have written her books.
He talked about his own mother in confidence, but his eyes all filled up with tears over George Eliot, and altogether it was the strangest page of life I ever skimmed over. She is an honest woman, and goes in with all her might for what she is about.
She did not confide in Herbert Spencer. They have taken a beautiful house in Cheyne Walk.
Citation
Mrs. Richmond Ritchie, Mrs. Richmond Ritchie to Her Husband, London, 24 May 1880, 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/95576