GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 22 March 1856
Title
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 22 March 1856
Title
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 22 March 1856
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Bessie Rayner Parkes
Date(s)
- 1856-03-22
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 22 March 1856
MS: The Countess of Iddesleigh. Hitherto unpublished.
Richmond | March 22. 56.
Dear Friend
I do trust you -- that is, I believe your motives are always such as belong to a noble, true nature. Any inquiries I make about you are inquiries of affection, not of distrust.
You will be surprized to hear that I have not been to town more than twice since last spring -- once to call on Mr. Chapman, and once to call on the Molluscs in the Zool[ogical] Gardens. I have no other visits to pay and I shudder at shopping so there has been no motive for rushing into the smoke. Mr. Lewes goes to town once a week, and he does any errands for me. However, with the prospect of seeing you the streets would look brighter, and now the weather is getting pleasanter we may be able some day to arrange a meeting. I quite understand that you cannot come here.
You say nothing about your health, so I shall please myself with thinking that you are strong as well as busy. I am so glad you have written a child's story, 681 for I expect you to shew a faculty for that sort of work, and such a faculty is strangely rare among women.
Your address to me as Miss Evans was unfortunate, as I am not known under that name here. We find it indispensable to our comfort that I should bear Mr. Lewes's name while we occupy lodgings, and we are now with so excellent a woman 682 that any cause of removal would be a misfortune. If you have occasion to write to me again, please to bear this in mind.
Letters are unsatisfactory modes of communication generally, but yours are always clear as daylight and just like yourself. If I had any cloudy feelings about you, a few words such as you have sent me would have dissipated them and made me what I have uninterruptedly been --
Your confiding and affectionate
Marian.
MS: The Countess of Iddesleigh. Hitherto unpublished.
Richmond | March 22. 56.
Dear Friend
I do trust you -- that is, I believe your motives are always such as belong to a noble, true nature. Any inquiries I make about you are inquiries of affection, not of distrust.
You will be surprized to hear that I have not been to town more than twice since last spring -- once to call on Mr. Chapman, and once to call on the Molluscs in the Zool[ogical] Gardens. I have no other visits to pay and I shudder at shopping so there has been no motive for rushing into the smoke. Mr. Lewes goes to town once a week, and he does any errands for me. However, with the prospect of seeing you the streets would look brighter, and now the weather is getting pleasanter we may be able some day to arrange a meeting. I quite understand that you cannot come here.
You say nothing about your health, so I shall please myself with thinking that you are strong as well as busy. I am so glad you have written a child's story, 681 for I expect you to shew a faculty for that sort of work, and such a faculty is strangely rare among women.
Your address to me as Miss Evans was unfortunate, as I am not known under that name here. We find it indispensable to our comfort that I should bear Mr. Lewes's name while we occupy lodgings, and we are now with so excellent a woman 682 that any cause of removal would be a misfortune. If you have occasion to write to me again, please to bear this in mind.
Letters are unsatisfactory modes of communication generally, but yours are always clear as daylight and just like yourself. If I had any cloudy feelings about you, a few words such as you have sent me would have dissipated them and made me what I have uninterruptedly been --
Your confiding and affectionate
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 22 March 1856, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/92067