GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 11 March 1861
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 11 March 1861
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 11 March 1861
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1861-03-11
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 11 March 1861
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Sq. | March 11. 61.
Dear Barbara
It seems to be the understood rule of our correspondence that I am always to write first even when I have written last; but I will quarrel with no rules if they will only allow me somehow or other to have news of you. I should have asked for them before if I had not been oppressed with bad health, dragging me back from all unnecessary writing. Since I had your letter, I have seen no creature who knows anything about you, and as my imagination is the reverse of sanguine, I have black fancies filling the blank. Pray disperse them, if you can.
We are going to freshen our minds and bodies at the coast for a fortnight, by gathering the harvest of molluscs brought with the Equinoctial winds. After that, there is a project of our going to Italy again -- perhaps at the end of April or beginning of May. I should be vexed if this caused us to miss you, in your visit to London. But our plans are not yet immovably fixed. -- We are as happy as creatures can be with imperfect digestions -- associating chiefly with the animals in the "Zoo," where we take our walks continually. Of other acquaintances, we have seen the Noels 713 lately, exchanging calls with them. The years have changed them a little since our old meetings, and I think those signs of our mortal lot made me all the more pleased to shake them by the hand again. -- I forget whether you told me that you liked Mrs. Hay (Miss Benham) 714 and her paintings, or the contrary. She came to see us when she was in town, and we saw her pictures. One of these -- a view near Florence with a foreground of stones (exhibited the year before last) pleased me highly. The figure of Old Tobit, also, in her last picture is admirable. She seems to be very ardent and thorough in her devotion to her painting, and altogether interested us a good deal.
I hope your sister and you are enjoying your painting as much as
ever. How is she now? The sunshine has got within her, I hope. And Bessie, too, is she still with you? My affectionate wishes to them both.
We had a blow on Hampstead Heath the other day 715 and brought home a jarful of microscopic wonders from the ponds, which are giving Mr. Lewes rapturous occupation. He is very busy with high scientific matters, but they do not prevent him from thinking and speaking of you, though our speech of late about you has been of the wondering conjecturing sort. I am so tired of such uncertainty that this very first evening on which I have dismissed some work that has absorbed my time hitherto, I write with rather heavy eyes and hands, to beseech you for some information about yourself and all your belongings. Perhaps if I had waited till tomorrow, I should have sent you a better-fed letter, but take the proof of anxious love as a substitute for all other merits.
Our united kind remembrances to the Doctor. We hope he is in better health. God bless you: George says, Amen.
Ever yours
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Sq. | March 11. 61.
Dear Barbara
It seems to be the understood rule of our correspondence that I am always to write first even when I have written last; but I will quarrel with no rules if they will only allow me somehow or other to have news of you. I should have asked for them before if I had not been oppressed with bad health, dragging me back from all unnecessary writing. Since I had your letter, I have seen no creature who knows anything about you, and as my imagination is the reverse of sanguine, I have black fancies filling the blank. Pray disperse them, if you can.
We are going to freshen our minds and bodies at the coast for a fortnight, by gathering the harvest of molluscs brought with the Equinoctial winds. After that, there is a project of our going to Italy again -- perhaps at the end of April or beginning of May. I should be vexed if this caused us to miss you, in your visit to London. But our plans are not yet immovably fixed. -- We are as happy as creatures can be with imperfect digestions -- associating chiefly with the animals in the "Zoo," where we take our walks continually. Of other acquaintances, we have seen the Noels 713 lately, exchanging calls with them. The years have changed them a little since our old meetings, and I think those signs of our mortal lot made me all the more pleased to shake them by the hand again. -- I forget whether you told me that you liked Mrs. Hay (Miss Benham) 714 and her paintings, or the contrary. She came to see us when she was in town, and we saw her pictures. One of these -- a view near Florence with a foreground of stones (exhibited the year before last) pleased me highly. The figure of Old Tobit, also, in her last picture is admirable. She seems to be very ardent and thorough in her devotion to her painting, and altogether interested us a good deal.
I hope your sister and you are enjoying your painting as much as
ever. How is she now? The sunshine has got within her, I hope. And Bessie, too, is she still with you? My affectionate wishes to them both.
We had a blow on Hampstead Heath the other day 715 and brought home a jarful of microscopic wonders from the ponds, which are giving Mr. Lewes rapturous occupation. He is very busy with high scientific matters, but they do not prevent him from thinking and speaking of you, though our speech of late about you has been of the wondering conjecturing sort. I am so tired of such uncertainty that this very first evening on which I have dismissed some work that has absorbed my time hitherto, I write with rather heavy eyes and hands, to beseech you for some information about yourself and all your belongings. Perhaps if I had waited till tomorrow, I should have sent you a better-fed letter, but take the proof of anxious love as a substitute for all other merits.
Our united kind remembrances to the Doctor. We hope he is in better health. God bless you: George says, Amen.
Ever yours
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 11 March 1861, 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/93021