GE to Joseph Munt Langford, Wandsworth, 10 October 1859
Title
GE to Joseph Munt Langford, Wandsworth, 10 October 1859
Title
GE to Joseph Munt Langford, Wandsworth, 10 October 1859
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Joseph Munt Langford
Date(s)
- 1859-10-10
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Joseph Munt Langford, Wandsworth, 10 October 1859
MS: Mrs. Dorothy Hicks. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge | October 10. 59.
My dear Sir
I am very much obliged to you for your ready suggestions in reply to my letter. The attorney 346 you mention, as a friend of your own, is precisely the kind of man I had in my mind when referring to your generic term, "hard-headed lawyers," and we shall by and by ask you to favour us with an introduction to him.
Meanwhile I enclose the simple questions I wish to have answered for the behoof of my authorship. They by no means require so accomplished a lawyer as the "Devil," to answer them, and I shouldn't wonder if your own amateur knowledge would suffice for the purpose. Simple questions, you know, are the last one gets answered by the exasperating race of compilers.
If you consult Mr. Welsby for me, I think I should prefer your dropping the questions in conversation, without formal introduction of them as the questions of an author, if that were possible. But I leave this to your judgment. I remain, my dear Sir
Yours sincerely
Marian Evans Lewes.
J. M. Langford Esq.
Over.
P.S. Mr. Lewes urges that a formal introduction of the questions to Mr. Welsby will be preferable, as the surest means of getting full and definite answers.
MS: Mrs. Dorothy Hicks. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge | October 10. 59.
My dear Sir
I am very much obliged to you for your ready suggestions in reply to my letter. The attorney 346 you mention, as a friend of your own, is precisely the kind of man I had in my mind when referring to your generic term, "hard-headed lawyers," and we shall by and by ask you to favour us with an introduction to him.
Meanwhile I enclose the simple questions I wish to have answered for the behoof of my authorship. They by no means require so accomplished a lawyer as the "Devil," to answer them, and I shouldn't wonder if your own amateur knowledge would suffice for the purpose. Simple questions, you know, are the last one gets answered by the exasperating race of compilers.
If you consult Mr. Welsby for me, I think I should prefer your dropping the questions in conversation, without formal introduction of them as the questions of an author, if that were possible. But I leave this to your judgment. I remain, my dear Sir
Yours sincerely
Marian Evans Lewes.
J. M. Langford Esq.
Over.
P.S. Mr. Lewes urges that a formal introduction of the questions to Mr. Welsby will be preferable, as the surest means of getting full and definite answers.
Signature
Marian Evans Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Joseph Munt Langford, Wandsworth, 10 October 1859, 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/92850