GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 1 October 1841
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 1 October 1841
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 1 October 1841
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1841-10-01
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 1 October 1841
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: COVENTRY | OC 1 | 1841. Extract published: Cross, I, 92.
Foleshill | October 1st 1841.
My very dear Veronica,
It seems a weary while since I indulged myself with sending you some scantlings of my thoughts and feelings, but I should not, to tell truth, have done it this afternoon but that I feel rather sad, and just as on a sultry day one thinks of the greenest, coolest nook one has ever enjoyed, I turn to the recollection of you for comfort. I wish to have good news of your prospects and if I cannot have these yet I wish to know the actual state of affairs with you. I am afraid of teazing you with letters, but as our new Ministry is thought likely to alter the postage 366 we ought to make use of our scribbling privilege while we have it. By the bye however poor a figure a paragraph about slippers may make on my first page I am determined to tell you while the matter is present with me that your plaid slippers worked for the Leamington bazaar have been in my care for more than 6 months, Mrs. Newdegate having returned them with other unsold things. What shall I do with them? Save them for an approaching Bazaar for the erection of Schools in our parish?
I want a letter from you all about yourself with a retraction of a very ambiguous reply to my statement of accounts between us. You do not really mean to refuse me a visit at least at Christmas? I am really quite unfit to write this afternoon, but as I expect full occupation, (fearing among other things a change of servants) I am afraid lest procrastination should deprive me another week of some information about you. My head and heart are both so sadly that I am reduced to copying to fill my sheet. Do you know these 3 little verses. What if the little rain should say So poor a drop as I Can ne'er refresh those thirsty fields I'll tarry in the sky? What if a shining beam of noon Should in its fountain stay, Because its feeble light alone Cannot create a day? Doth not each rain drop help to give The cool refreshing shower? And every ray of light to form And beautify the flower? 367
Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love -- that makes life and nature harmonize. The birds are all consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious Autumn! my very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. Sweet day, so calm, so pure, so bright The bridal of the earth and sky
The dew will weep thy fall tonight For thou alas! must die! 368
"Pleasant is the joy of grief! It is like the shower of spring, when it softens the branch of the oak, and the young leaf rears its green head." I shall sicken you or infect you, either of which is undesirable, so dearest Veronica, I will assure you that you are continually sharing my warmest love and deliver you by a good bye from more of this trash.
Your
Clematis.
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: COVENTRY | OC 1 | 1841. Extract published: Cross, I, 92.
Foleshill | October 1st 1841.
My very dear Veronica,
It seems a weary while since I indulged myself with sending you some scantlings of my thoughts and feelings, but I should not, to tell truth, have done it this afternoon but that I feel rather sad, and just as on a sultry day one thinks of the greenest, coolest nook one has ever enjoyed, I turn to the recollection of you for comfort. I wish to have good news of your prospects and if I cannot have these yet I wish to know the actual state of affairs with you. I am afraid of teazing you with letters, but as our new Ministry is thought likely to alter the postage 366 we ought to make use of our scribbling privilege while we have it. By the bye however poor a figure a paragraph about slippers may make on my first page I am determined to tell you while the matter is present with me that your plaid slippers worked for the Leamington bazaar have been in my care for more than 6 months, Mrs. Newdegate having returned them with other unsold things. What shall I do with them? Save them for an approaching Bazaar for the erection of Schools in our parish?
I want a letter from you all about yourself with a retraction of a very ambiguous reply to my statement of accounts between us. You do not really mean to refuse me a visit at least at Christmas? I am really quite unfit to write this afternoon, but as I expect full occupation, (fearing among other things a change of servants) I am afraid lest procrastination should deprive me another week of some information about you. My head and heart are both so sadly that I am reduced to copying to fill my sheet. Do you know these 3 little verses. What if the little rain should say So poor a drop as I Can ne'er refresh those thirsty fields I'll tarry in the sky? What if a shining beam of noon Should in its fountain stay, Because its feeble light alone Cannot create a day? Doth not each rain drop help to give The cool refreshing shower? And every ray of light to form And beautify the flower? 367
Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love -- that makes life and nature harmonize. The birds are all consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious Autumn! my very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. Sweet day, so calm, so pure, so bright The bridal of the earth and sky
The dew will weep thy fall tonight For thou alas! must die! 368
"Pleasant is the joy of grief! It is like the shower of spring, when it softens the branch of the oak, and the young leaf rears its green head." I shall sicken you or infect you, either of which is undesirable, so dearest Veronica, I will assure you that you are continually sharing my warmest love and deliver you by a good bye from more of this trash.
Your
Clematis.
Signature
Clematis.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 1 October 1841, 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/92879