GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Whitby, [21 July 1870]
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Whitby, [21 July 1870]
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Whitby, [21 July 1870]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Lee Lewes
Date(s)
- 1870-07-21
Place
Whitby
Letter Content
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Whitby, [21 July 1870]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 21 July 1870. Published: Paterson, pp. 143-144.
Royal Crescent Avenue | Whitby | Thursday Evening.
Dearest Boy
I found your letter on our return from our evening walk, and have read and read it again with keen feeling both about the dead and the living. Now that I know what was the cause of the illness, I dwell with thankfulness on the thought that the sufferings were not more prolonged, and I try to overcome in this way the too urgent thought of what Aunt Margaret and Gertrude have undergone. I think too much, too continually of death now, almost to the partial eclipse of life -- as if life were so narrow a strip as hardly to be taken much reckoning of. And so, in spirit I shall be with you all with little interruption while these first days of conscious parting last, for there are thoughts which seem to go on like a little ache, even while we are thinking other things as well. Give my tender love to both the tried and wearied ones. I shall be anxious to know how their health is after this week, and I know you will take the trouble to tell me.
Dear Pater is going on well, except that the change of weather to greater sultriness, unhappily coinciding with our change of place, has caused a slight check in appetite and digestion. This place is quite uniquely beautiful among all English places I have ever seen. It is as quaintly picturesque as an old Italian town, and the scenery around it is lovely. I hope that its apparently less benignant effect on our bodies is due entirely to a state of the weather which will be only transient. At present the visitors are not very numerous, but this grievous war 208 will cause all English coast places to be crowded as soon as the general holiday time comes. Our friend Mrs. Burne Jones is here with her children. But Pater has written to Grandmamma today, and has probably told her all details, so that I may refrain from particulars.
I have only written this before going to bed, just to ease my heart. That heart is very much influenced in its beatings by any sorrow or joy that happens to you, dear children. And I trust that Aunt Margaret accepts without indifference that deep respect and sympathy which it has been my happiness to feel towards her ever since I have known her. How precious losses make to us all that still remains!
Ever your loving
Mutter.
Pater sends his best love.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 21 July 1870. Published: Paterson, pp. 143-144.
Royal Crescent Avenue | Whitby | Thursday Evening.
Dearest Boy
I found your letter on our return from our evening walk, and have read and read it again with keen feeling both about the dead and the living. Now that I know what was the cause of the illness, I dwell with thankfulness on the thought that the sufferings were not more prolonged, and I try to overcome in this way the too urgent thought of what Aunt Margaret and Gertrude have undergone. I think too much, too continually of death now, almost to the partial eclipse of life -- as if life were so narrow a strip as hardly to be taken much reckoning of. And so, in spirit I shall be with you all with little interruption while these first days of conscious parting last, for there are thoughts which seem to go on like a little ache, even while we are thinking other things as well. Give my tender love to both the tried and wearied ones. I shall be anxious to know how their health is after this week, and I know you will take the trouble to tell me.
Dear Pater is going on well, except that the change of weather to greater sultriness, unhappily coinciding with our change of place, has caused a slight check in appetite and digestion. This place is quite uniquely beautiful among all English places I have ever seen. It is as quaintly picturesque as an old Italian town, and the scenery around it is lovely. I hope that its apparently less benignant effect on our bodies is due entirely to a state of the weather which will be only transient. At present the visitors are not very numerous, but this grievous war 208 will cause all English coast places to be crowded as soon as the general holiday time comes. Our friend Mrs. Burne Jones is here with her children. But Pater has written to Grandmamma today, and has probably told her all details, so that I may refrain from particulars.
I have only written this before going to bed, just to ease my heart. That heart is very much influenced in its beatings by any sorrow or joy that happens to you, dear children. And I trust that Aunt Margaret accepts without indifference that deep respect and sympathy which it has been my happiness to feel towards her ever since I have known her. How precious losses make to us all that still remains!
Ever your loving
Mutter.
Pater sends his best love.
Signature
Mutter.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Whitby, [21 July 1870], 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/92227