GE to John Walter Cross, London, 24-25 December 1879
Title
GE to John Walter Cross, London, 24-25 December 1879
Title
GE to John Walter Cross, London, 24-25 December 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Walter Cross
Date(s)
- 1879-12-24–<br /> 1879-12-25
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to John Walter Cross, London, 24-25 December 1879
MS: Yale. Envelope: J. W. Cross Esq | Francis Otter Esq | Ranby | Wragby. Postmark: ST. JOHNS WOOD | AX | DE 25 | 79 | N.W. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 24. 79.
Bester Mann!
I received the card you kindly posted for me at the Station 352 -- your kindness was the chief impression I got from its hieroglyphics. I imagined Mary and you dining cozily after your journey and having a glorious walk in the sunshine today.
My time has been well filled. The grandchildren came with their mamma 353 to lunch and I managed to amuse them till four. Then came Dr. Congreve and Lady Strangford, and yesterday I had Mr. Sully and Burne Jones -- the last bringing us beautiful photographs which I may keep as long as I like, so your imagination may be enlarged with them whenever you feel inclined for self-culture, sweetness and light.
Tomorrow I shall be alone all day smelling the servants' goose and hoping that a fraction of this world's inhabitants are enjoying themselves.
This morning I had a letter from poor Mrs. Stuart telling me that she has been in horrible suffering from gout ever since she went to Italy. The water all along the Riviera is full of chalk, the sustenance on which gout best flourishes, and she is naturally anathematizing doctors who send their gouty patients to that coast in entire innocence on that all-important point. Avis au lecteur.
Lady Strangford has settled one young Bulgarian at Oxford, who is to be a teacher in his own country, and she has another of the species in her own house carrying on his studies at King's College and preparing to be a Pastor by learning Chemistry which he will follow up with Agriculture, the Gospel most needed in Bulgaria. I ought to sit in dust and ashes after hearing of her work in these late years -- if dust and ashes were regenerative. 354
Charles is coming to dine with me on Monday, but I suppose that I shall hardly have any company before then, except a stray person glad to escape from "the bosom of his (or her) family." I am quite contented, being out of pain and not (that I know of) annoying anybody.
If you return to town in time to dine with me on Tuesday, will you do me that honor? Or perhaps you will prefer Wednesday?
Give my love to any creature who wants that small alms and believe me to remain
Your obliged ex-shareholder of A and C Gaslight and Coke. 355
Christmasday. It is now mid-day and I am still owing all my light to candles. The fog is dense and one thinks of cab accidents. You are well off to be out of London.
MS: Yale. Envelope: J. W. Cross Esq | Francis Otter Esq | Ranby | Wragby. Postmark: ST. JOHNS WOOD | AX | DE 25 | 79 | N.W. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 24. 79.
Bester Mann!
I received the card you kindly posted for me at the Station 352 -- your kindness was the chief impression I got from its hieroglyphics. I imagined Mary and you dining cozily after your journey and having a glorious walk in the sunshine today.
My time has been well filled. The grandchildren came with their mamma 353 to lunch and I managed to amuse them till four. Then came Dr. Congreve and Lady Strangford, and yesterday I had Mr. Sully and Burne Jones -- the last bringing us beautiful photographs which I may keep as long as I like, so your imagination may be enlarged with them whenever you feel inclined for self-culture, sweetness and light.
Tomorrow I shall be alone all day smelling the servants' goose and hoping that a fraction of this world's inhabitants are enjoying themselves.
This morning I had a letter from poor Mrs. Stuart telling me that she has been in horrible suffering from gout ever since she went to Italy. The water all along the Riviera is full of chalk, the sustenance on which gout best flourishes, and she is naturally anathematizing doctors who send their gouty patients to that coast in entire innocence on that all-important point. Avis au lecteur.
Lady Strangford has settled one young Bulgarian at Oxford, who is to be a teacher in his own country, and she has another of the species in her own house carrying on his studies at King's College and preparing to be a Pastor by learning Chemistry which he will follow up with Agriculture, the Gospel most needed in Bulgaria. I ought to sit in dust and ashes after hearing of her work in these late years -- if dust and ashes were regenerative. 354
Charles is coming to dine with me on Monday, but I suppose that I shall hardly have any company before then, except a stray person glad to escape from "the bosom of his (or her) family." I am quite contented, being out of pain and not (that I know of) annoying anybody.
If you return to town in time to dine with me on Tuesday, will you do me that honor? Or perhaps you will prefer Wednesday?
Give my love to any creature who wants that small alms and believe me to remain
Your obliged ex-shareholder of A and C Gaslight and Coke. 355
Christmasday. It is now mid-day and I am still owing all my light to candles. The fog is dense and one thinks of cab accidents. You are well off to be out of London.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Walter Cross, London, 24-25 December 1879, 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/92832