GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Witley, 29 October 1879
Title
GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Witley, 29 October 1879
Title
GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Witley, 29 October 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mary Finlay Cross
Date(s)
- 1879-10-29
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Witley, 29 October 1879
MS: Tinker Collection, Yale. Published: Cross, III, 383-384.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
October 29. 79.
My dear Dove
Your affectionate note would quite have determined me to do what, when your Brother kindly proposed it, raised a certain longing in me. I thought that I should like to see you all in the remembered home again. But I have had a little check in health from a chill which seems to have put that moody organ, the liver, very much out of humour, and I am feeling so depressed that I shrink from making any engagement which involves others.
A visitor 340 today and my own languor threaten to throw me backward in my arrangements for leaving, and I have a sense of impossibility about everything that under other conditions would be a pleasure. I am afraid lest a fit of sadness should make me an oppression to you all, and my conclusion this morning is that I must give up the few hours' happiness of feeling your family love around me as I used to do, and simply go straight up to town with my servants.
But if Friday morning brings me better hopes I will telegraph to you, since you allow me to wait till the eleventh hour. I should start from here at 4.10. But if you receive no telegram you will understand that I am still too down-hearted to venture on a visit even to those who are amongst the best-loved of my friends.
In that case you must all make me amends for my loss by coming to see me in the old place in town. Always, dear,
Yours most affectionately
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Tinker Collection, Yale. Published: Cross, III, 383-384.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
October 29. 79.
My dear Dove
Your affectionate note would quite have determined me to do what, when your Brother kindly proposed it, raised a certain longing in me. I thought that I should like to see you all in the remembered home again. But I have had a little check in health from a chill which seems to have put that moody organ, the liver, very much out of humour, and I am feeling so depressed that I shrink from making any engagement which involves others.
A visitor 340 today and my own languor threaten to throw me backward in my arrangements for leaving, and I have a sense of impossibility about everything that under other conditions would be a pleasure. I am afraid lest a fit of sadness should make me an oppression to you all, and my conclusion this morning is that I must give up the few hours' happiness of feeling your family love around me as I used to do, and simply go straight up to town with my servants.
But if Friday morning brings me better hopes I will telegraph to you, since you allow me to wait till the eleventh hour. I should start from here at 4.10. But if you receive no telegram you will understand that I am still too down-hearted to venture on a visit even to those who are amongst the best-loved of my friends.
In that case you must all make me amends for my loss by coming to see me in the old place in town. Always, dear,
Yours most affectionately
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Witley, 29 October 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/92947