GE to Charles Bray, Weimar, [16 August 1854]
Title
GE to Charles Bray, Weimar, [16 August 1854]
Title
GE to Charles Bray, Weimar, [16 August 1854]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Bray
Date(s)
- 1854-08-16
Place
Weimar
Letter Content
GE to Charles Bray, Weimar, [16 August 1854]
MS: Coventry City Libraries, gift of the late Miss Mary Cramp. Endorsed: 21 August 1854. Hitherto unpublished.
Kaufgasse | Weimar.
Dear Friend
I hope you want to hear something of me though I confess I do not write to satisfy your wants but my own. It is a necessity to me to know how you all are, and I venture to hope that if I ask you for a letter you will send me one.
I have had a month of exquisite enjoyment, and seem to have begun life afresh. I am really strong and well and have recovered the power of learning in spite of age and grey hairs. The first part of our route lay through Belgium. Mr. R. Noel was a very pleasant companion in the steamboat to Antwerp, where he left us for Bonn. From Antwerp we went to Brussels, and by Namur and Li'e9ge to Cologne. On the way to Cologne we were joined in our railway carriage by Dr. Brabant, who kindly exerted himself to procure me an interview with Strauss. 508 It was rather melancholy. Strauss looks so strange and castdown, and my deficient German prevented us from learning more of each other than our exterior which in the case of both would have been better left to imagination.
We went up the Rhine from Cologne to Mainz, Frankfurt being the main attraction to us for Goethe's sake. A ten hours' railway journey from Frankfurt brought us to Weimar where we have pitched our tent -- that is, taken a small lodging, with the intention of staying a month or two. The first sight of Weimar -- "the Athens of the north" was a considerable surprize to us. We had expected something as stately as your little statue of Goethe and lo! we found a huge village rather than a town -- a place so sleepy that it has no gas and its shopkeepers do not think it worth while to put up their names at their doors. But the immense park and plantations with labyrinthine walks are a constant source of new pleasure, and there are charming evening or morning excursions to be made to Belvedere, Tieffurt and Ettersburg, the grand Duke's summer residences.
Above all Liszt is here. He lives with a Russian Princess, who is in fact his wife, and he is a Grand Seigneur in this place, whereas Hofrath or Court Councillor is seldom anything more, as an Englishman would say, than a poor author. Liszt is extremely kind to us. We have been to a d'e9je'fbner at the Altenburg, where he lives, and the Princess has behaved charmingly to us. He is coming to-day to dine with us at the Erbprinz, our usual place for dining, where we have six courses of dishes so imaginative in their conception that my intellect feasts as well as my palate and all for 10 groschen = 1 shilling!
Liszt is the first really inspired man I ever saw. His face might serve as a model for a St. John in its sweetness when he is in repose but seated at the piano he is as grand as one of Michael Angelo's prophets. When I read George Sand's letter to Franz Liszt in her [Lettres d'un voyageur,] I little thought that I should ever be seated t'eate-'e0-t'eate with him for an hour, as I was yesterday and telling him my ideas and feelings.
Another person who is very kind and agreeable is the Hofrath
Sch'f6ll, 509 a man thoroughly erudite after the German fashion but without any of the German heaviness. He goes to court, but the other evening at Belvedere he brought his wife and children and took out of his pocket a piece of cake -- continental cake -- that is, batter pudding baked in a pan with fruit, which he had carried in order to give them a treat after their coffee. I am getting on a little in my German, but am retarded by having work to do which obliges me to read a great deal of French. Liszt and the Princess speak French, but Sch'f6ll gives me some practice in German.
Alas! alas! you of course know more than I do about Mr. Chapman's affairs. I am grieved that it has come to this, though I suppose I was silly to suppose it could be avoided.
Much love to all! This weather suggests a picture of your taking tea in the summerhouse and lying on the bearskin. I hope there is no cloud even so big as a man's hand to mar the enjoyment of these inexhaustible pleasures. Good bye. Think always kindly of your ever sincere and affectionate Friend
Marian Evans.
MS: Coventry City Libraries, gift of the late Miss Mary Cramp. Endorsed: 21 August 1854. Hitherto unpublished.
Kaufgasse | Weimar.
Dear Friend
I hope you want to hear something of me though I confess I do not write to satisfy your wants but my own. It is a necessity to me to know how you all are, and I venture to hope that if I ask you for a letter you will send me one.
I have had a month of exquisite enjoyment, and seem to have begun life afresh. I am really strong and well and have recovered the power of learning in spite of age and grey hairs. The first part of our route lay through Belgium. Mr. R. Noel was a very pleasant companion in the steamboat to Antwerp, where he left us for Bonn. From Antwerp we went to Brussels, and by Namur and Li'e9ge to Cologne. On the way to Cologne we were joined in our railway carriage by Dr. Brabant, who kindly exerted himself to procure me an interview with Strauss. 508 It was rather melancholy. Strauss looks so strange and castdown, and my deficient German prevented us from learning more of each other than our exterior which in the case of both would have been better left to imagination.
We went up the Rhine from Cologne to Mainz, Frankfurt being the main attraction to us for Goethe's sake. A ten hours' railway journey from Frankfurt brought us to Weimar where we have pitched our tent -- that is, taken a small lodging, with the intention of staying a month or two. The first sight of Weimar -- "the Athens of the north" was a considerable surprize to us. We had expected something as stately as your little statue of Goethe and lo! we found a huge village rather than a town -- a place so sleepy that it has no gas and its shopkeepers do not think it worth while to put up their names at their doors. But the immense park and plantations with labyrinthine walks are a constant source of new pleasure, and there are charming evening or morning excursions to be made to Belvedere, Tieffurt and Ettersburg, the grand Duke's summer residences.
Above all Liszt is here. He lives with a Russian Princess, who is in fact his wife, and he is a Grand Seigneur in this place, whereas Hofrath or Court Councillor is seldom anything more, as an Englishman would say, than a poor author. Liszt is extremely kind to us. We have been to a d'e9je'fbner at the Altenburg, where he lives, and the Princess has behaved charmingly to us. He is coming to-day to dine with us at the Erbprinz, our usual place for dining, where we have six courses of dishes so imaginative in their conception that my intellect feasts as well as my palate and all for 10 groschen = 1 shilling!
Liszt is the first really inspired man I ever saw. His face might serve as a model for a St. John in its sweetness when he is in repose but seated at the piano he is as grand as one of Michael Angelo's prophets. When I read George Sand's letter to Franz Liszt in her [Lettres d'un voyageur,] I little thought that I should ever be seated t'eate-'e0-t'eate with him for an hour, as I was yesterday and telling him my ideas and feelings.
Another person who is very kind and agreeable is the Hofrath
Sch'f6ll, 509 a man thoroughly erudite after the German fashion but without any of the German heaviness. He goes to court, but the other evening at Belvedere he brought his wife and children and took out of his pocket a piece of cake -- continental cake -- that is, batter pudding baked in a pan with fruit, which he had carried in order to give them a treat after their coffee. I am getting on a little in my German, but am retarded by having work to do which obliges me to read a great deal of French. Liszt and the Princess speak French, but Sch'f6ll gives me some practice in German.
Alas! alas! you of course know more than I do about Mr. Chapman's affairs. I am grieved that it has come to this, though I suppose I was silly to suppose it could be avoided.
Much love to all! This weather suggests a picture of your taking tea in the summerhouse and lying on the bearskin. I hope there is no cloud even so big as a man's hand to mar the enjoyment of these inexhaustible pleasures. Good bye. Think always kindly of your ever sincere and affectionate Friend
Marian Evans.
Signature
Marian Evans.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Bray, Weimar, [16 August 1854], 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/92190