GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 16 June 1874
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 16 June 1874
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 16 June 1874
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1874-06-16
Place
Earlswood Common
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 16 June 1874
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 233-235.
The Cottage | Earlswood Common | June 16. 74.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
I had imagined you back at Strathtyrum, but I take your stay in London as a pleasant sign that you are finding much enjoyment there, if not of a direct at least of a fatherly sympathetic sort. We on the other hand are revelling in the peace of the country and have no drawback to our delight except the cold winds which have forced us to put on winter clothing for the last four or five days. Our wide common is very breezy and the wind makes mournful music round our walls. But I should think it is not possible to find a much healthier region than this round Reigate and Redhill, and it is prettier than half the places one crosses the Channel to see. We have been hunting about for a permanent country home in the neighbourhood, but no house is so difficult to get as one which has at once seclusion and convenience of position, which is neither of the suburban villa style nor of the grand Hall and Castle dimensions.
You never told me the fine story about Henry the waiter before, and it is worth repeating many times as a parallel to the Balzacian view of Paris. Paris -- a melancholy word! The restoration of the Empire which is a threatening possibility seems to me a degrading issue. In the restoration of the Monarchy I should have found something to rejoice at, but the traditions of the Empire, both first and second, seem to my sentiment bad. Some form of military despotism must be as you say the only solution where no one political party knows how to behave itself. The American pattern is certainly being accepted as to Senatorial manners. I daresay you have been to Knebworth and talked over French matters with Lord Lytton. We are grieved to hear from him but a poor account of sweet Lady Lytton's health and spirits. She is to me one of the most charming types of womanliness, and I long for her to have all a woman's best blessings.
The good news about the small remainder of [Jubal] is very welcome, and I will write at once to Mr. Simpson to send him my two or three corrections and my wishes about the new edition. The price of the book will well bear a thicker and a handsomely tinted paper, especially now it has proved moveable, and I felt so much the difference to the eye and touch of the copies on rich tinted paper that I was much vexed with myself for having contributed to the shabby appearance of the current edition by suggesting the thin Keats volume as a model. Since the days when Tennyson's earlier editions made their appearance in an ugly limp physique, people have become used to more luxurious editions, and I confess to the weakness of being affected by paper and type in something of the same subtle way as I am affected by the odour of a room.
Many thanks for Lord Neaves's pleasant little book, which is a capital example of your happily-planned publication -- thanks also for the complete series which Mr. Langford has sent down here instead of to the Priory. 105 However, they have the excellent quality of compactness and can be stowed without great difficulty.
I hope you will all carry away not less than your average health as well as amusing memories from London. I came down half-poisoned by the French theatre, but I am flourishing now, and am brewing my future big book 106 with more or less (generally less) belief in the quality of the liquor which will be drawn off. The secured peacefulness and the pure air of the country make our time of double worth.
We have had a Scotch lady 107 (from Brittany) to see us on her way to Scotland, but otherwise our quiet has been uninterrupted, and we mean to give no invitations to London friends desirous of change. We are selfishly bent on dual solitude.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 233-235.
The Cottage | Earlswood Common | June 16. 74.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
I had imagined you back at Strathtyrum, but I take your stay in London as a pleasant sign that you are finding much enjoyment there, if not of a direct at least of a fatherly sympathetic sort. We on the other hand are revelling in the peace of the country and have no drawback to our delight except the cold winds which have forced us to put on winter clothing for the last four or five days. Our wide common is very breezy and the wind makes mournful music round our walls. But I should think it is not possible to find a much healthier region than this round Reigate and Redhill, and it is prettier than half the places one crosses the Channel to see. We have been hunting about for a permanent country home in the neighbourhood, but no house is so difficult to get as one which has at once seclusion and convenience of position, which is neither of the suburban villa style nor of the grand Hall and Castle dimensions.
You never told me the fine story about Henry the waiter before, and it is worth repeating many times as a parallel to the Balzacian view of Paris. Paris -- a melancholy word! The restoration of the Empire which is a threatening possibility seems to me a degrading issue. In the restoration of the Monarchy I should have found something to rejoice at, but the traditions of the Empire, both first and second, seem to my sentiment bad. Some form of military despotism must be as you say the only solution where no one political party knows how to behave itself. The American pattern is certainly being accepted as to Senatorial manners. I daresay you have been to Knebworth and talked over French matters with Lord Lytton. We are grieved to hear from him but a poor account of sweet Lady Lytton's health and spirits. She is to me one of the most charming types of womanliness, and I long for her to have all a woman's best blessings.
The good news about the small remainder of [Jubal] is very welcome, and I will write at once to Mr. Simpson to send him my two or three corrections and my wishes about the new edition. The price of the book will well bear a thicker and a handsomely tinted paper, especially now it has proved moveable, and I felt so much the difference to the eye and touch of the copies on rich tinted paper that I was much vexed with myself for having contributed to the shabby appearance of the current edition by suggesting the thin Keats volume as a model. Since the days when Tennyson's earlier editions made their appearance in an ugly limp physique, people have become used to more luxurious editions, and I confess to the weakness of being affected by paper and type in something of the same subtle way as I am affected by the odour of a room.
Many thanks for Lord Neaves's pleasant little book, which is a capital example of your happily-planned publication -- thanks also for the complete series which Mr. Langford has sent down here instead of to the Priory. 105 However, they have the excellent quality of compactness and can be stowed without great difficulty.
I hope you will all carry away not less than your average health as well as amusing memories from London. I came down half-poisoned by the French theatre, but I am flourishing now, and am brewing my future big book 106 with more or less (generally less) belief in the quality of the liquor which will be drawn off. The secured peacefulness and the pure air of the country make our time of double worth.
We have had a Scotch lady 107 (from Brittany) to see us on her way to Scotland, but otherwise our quiet has been uninterrupted, and we mean to give no invitations to London friends desirous of change. We are selfishly bent on dual solitude.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 16 June 1874, 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/92576