GE to John Walter Cross, Rickmansworth, 14 August 1875
Title
GE to John Walter Cross, Rickmansworth, 14 August 1875
Title
GE to John Walter Cross, Rickmansworth, 14 August 1875
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Walter Cross
Date(s)
- 1875-08-14
Place
Rickmansworth
Letter Content
GE to John Walter Cross, Rickmansworth, 14 August 1875
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 260-261.
The Elms | Rickmansworth | August 14. 75.
Dearest Nephew
What a comfort that you are at home again and well! 307 The sense of your nearness had been so long missing to us that we had begun to take up with life as inevitably a little less cheerful than we remembered it to have been formerly, without thinking of restoration. I trust you will soon feel settled in your old place and gradually effacing any undesirable signs of your long absence.
My box is quite dear to me, and shall be used for stamps, as you recommend, unless I find another use that will lead me to open it and think of you the oftener. You revile it, but to my taste it is exceedingly pretty, and has that charm of a box to me -- a lid with a hinge, so that I can open and shut it without trouble. It is very precious to me that you bore me in your mind and took that trouble to give me pleasure -- in which you have succeeded.
We have lately had a sorrow in the death of our youngest son Herbert, whom you have heard us speak of as Bertie. For a long while we have been in anxiety about him on account of a sad change in his health. From having been splendidly muscular and altogether vigorous he had become reduced by what he reported to be neuralgic pains. It now appears that a tendency to glandular disease which had shewn itself in his early boyhood had returned and rapidly developed itself, so that every one of his glands was enlarged. He went to Durban for the sake of sea air and medical advice, but while there an attack of bronchitis hastened his death. He has left a widow and two children, one of them an infant boy born in May last. He was a sweet-natured creature -- not clever, but diligent and well-judging about the things of daily life, and we felt ten years ago that a colony with a fine climate, like Natal, offered him the only fair prospect within his reach. What can we do more than try to arrive at the best conclusion from the conditions as they are known to us? The issue, which one could not foresee, must be borne with resignation -- is in no case a ground for self-reproach, and in this case, I imagine, would hardly have been favourably altered by a choice of life in the old country.
Our house here is rather a fine old red brick Georgian place, with a lovely bit of landscape, but I think we have suffered the more from the rainy close weather because we are in a valley and can see the mists lie in a thick white stratum on our meadow. Mr. Lewes has been on the whole flourishing and enjoying, writing away with vigour, and making a discovery or theory at the rate of 1 per diem.
Of your unfortunate Aunt you must expect no good. She has been in a piteous state of debility in body and depression in mind. Her book seems to her so unlikely ever to be finished in a way that will make it worth giving to the world that it is a kind of glass in which she beholds her infirmities.
That expedition on the Thames would be a great delight if it were possible to us. But our arrangements forbid it -- our loving thanks to Mr. Druce as well as to you for reviving the thought. We are to remain here till the 23d of September, then to fly through town, or at least only perch there for a night or so, and then go down to the coast while the servants clean our house. Mr. Lewes looks forward to a little renewal of his old zoologizing pleasures at the coast, and at present we expect that Bournemouth will be our destination.
Let us have news of you all again soon. Let us comfort each other while it is day, for the night cometh --
Our best love to all the dear ones now mustered together. I hope this change of weather in which we are glorying both for the country's sake and our own will not make Weybridge too warm for Mrs. Cross.
Always your affectionate Aunt
M. E. Lewes
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 260-261.
The Elms | Rickmansworth | August 14. 75.
Dearest Nephew
What a comfort that you are at home again and well! 307 The sense of your nearness had been so long missing to us that we had begun to take up with life as inevitably a little less cheerful than we remembered it to have been formerly, without thinking of restoration. I trust you will soon feel settled in your old place and gradually effacing any undesirable signs of your long absence.
My box is quite dear to me, and shall be used for stamps, as you recommend, unless I find another use that will lead me to open it and think of you the oftener. You revile it, but to my taste it is exceedingly pretty, and has that charm of a box to me -- a lid with a hinge, so that I can open and shut it without trouble. It is very precious to me that you bore me in your mind and took that trouble to give me pleasure -- in which you have succeeded.
We have lately had a sorrow in the death of our youngest son Herbert, whom you have heard us speak of as Bertie. For a long while we have been in anxiety about him on account of a sad change in his health. From having been splendidly muscular and altogether vigorous he had become reduced by what he reported to be neuralgic pains. It now appears that a tendency to glandular disease which had shewn itself in his early boyhood had returned and rapidly developed itself, so that every one of his glands was enlarged. He went to Durban for the sake of sea air and medical advice, but while there an attack of bronchitis hastened his death. He has left a widow and two children, one of them an infant boy born in May last. He was a sweet-natured creature -- not clever, but diligent and well-judging about the things of daily life, and we felt ten years ago that a colony with a fine climate, like Natal, offered him the only fair prospect within his reach. What can we do more than try to arrive at the best conclusion from the conditions as they are known to us? The issue, which one could not foresee, must be borne with resignation -- is in no case a ground for self-reproach, and in this case, I imagine, would hardly have been favourably altered by a choice of life in the old country.
Our house here is rather a fine old red brick Georgian place, with a lovely bit of landscape, but I think we have suffered the more from the rainy close weather because we are in a valley and can see the mists lie in a thick white stratum on our meadow. Mr. Lewes has been on the whole flourishing and enjoying, writing away with vigour, and making a discovery or theory at the rate of 1 per diem.
Of your unfortunate Aunt you must expect no good. She has been in a piteous state of debility in body and depression in mind. Her book seems to her so unlikely ever to be finished in a way that will make it worth giving to the world that it is a kind of glass in which she beholds her infirmities.
That expedition on the Thames would be a great delight if it were possible to us. But our arrangements forbid it -- our loving thanks to Mr. Druce as well as to you for reviving the thought. We are to remain here till the 23d of September, then to fly through town, or at least only perch there for a night or so, and then go down to the coast while the servants clean our house. Mr. Lewes looks forward to a little renewal of his old zoologizing pleasures at the coast, and at present we expect that Bournemouth will be our destination.
Let us have news of you all again soon. Let us comfort each other while it is day, for the night cometh --
Our best love to all the dear ones now mustered together. I hope this change of weather in which we are glorying both for the country's sake and our own will not make Weybridge too warm for Mrs. Cross.
Always your affectionate Aunt
M. E. Lewes
Signature
M. E. Lewes
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Walter Cross, Rickmansworth, 14 August 1875, 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/92837