GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 14 September 1880
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 14 September 1880
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 14 September 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1880-09-14
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 14 September 1880
MS: Parrish Collection, Princeton. Envelope: Madame Bodichon | Scalands Gate | Robertsbridge | Hawkhurst. Postmarks: GODALMING | C | 14 SP | 80; ROBERTSBRIDGE | A | SP 15 | 80; HAWKHURST | A | SP 15 | 80. Mostly published: Cross, III, 415-416.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
September 14. 80.
My dear Barbara
Your letter this morning is a welcome assurance about you. We have been away in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, paying visits to Mrs. Otter and the Halls. The weather, which is now broken, was glorious through all our wandering which we made very interesting by pausing to see Ely, Peterborough and Lincoln Cathedrals. The Otters have a very pretty happy household. He is a country gentleman now, called
[Squire] by his tenants, acting as a magistrate and glancing towards parliament. 476 But he keeps up his reading and is delightful to talk to. Emily looks very pretty in her matronly position, with three little children. The Halls too are very pleasant to behold in their home life. He has done wonders in building nice cottages and schools and sinking a well where it was wanted, and founding a cooperative store, and in general doing whatever opportunity allows towards slowly improving this confused world. We saw Mr. and Mrs. H. Sidgwick. Perhaps you know that they have had and have the admirable public spirit to let their house and arrange to live for a year in the new Nuneham House, in order to facilitate matters for the double institution.
We are very well. Mr. Cross gets stronger and brighter every day. We often mention you, because you are associated with so many of my memories. He goes to town only once or twice a week, and unhappily is gone today through the rain and cold wind. His unmarried brother and sisters are going to leave Weybridge and live in London. We shall go to our winter nest there at the end of October. Our only bugbear -- it is a very little one -- is the having to make preliminary arrangements towards settling ourselves in the new house (4, Cheyne Walk). It is a quaint house, and a Mr. Armitage of Manchester, of whom you may have heard has been superintending the decoration and furnishing, but not to the exclusion of old things which we must carry and stow, especially wallings of books. I am become so lazy that I shrink from all such practical work, and pine if I have only to think of furniture.
Charles and Gertrude are very prosperous and happy and are bringing up their three little girls very nicely. They have just come back from a five weeks' holiday in Switzerland.
Here is a gossiping letter! -- I wish I had more edifying things to tell you. Please give my kind remembrances to Dr. Bodichon, and my love to Miss Marks whose hand writing is a pleasant sign to me that she is with you.
Always your loving
Marian.
MS: Parrish Collection, Princeton. Envelope: Madame Bodichon | Scalands Gate | Robertsbridge | Hawkhurst. Postmarks: GODALMING | C | 14 SP | 80; ROBERTSBRIDGE | A | SP 15 | 80; HAWKHURST | A | SP 15 | 80. Mostly published: Cross, III, 415-416.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
September 14. 80.
My dear Barbara
Your letter this morning is a welcome assurance about you. We have been away in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, paying visits to Mrs. Otter and the Halls. The weather, which is now broken, was glorious through all our wandering which we made very interesting by pausing to see Ely, Peterborough and Lincoln Cathedrals. The Otters have a very pretty happy household. He is a country gentleman now, called
[Squire] by his tenants, acting as a magistrate and glancing towards parliament. 476 But he keeps up his reading and is delightful to talk to. Emily looks very pretty in her matronly position, with three little children. The Halls too are very pleasant to behold in their home life. He has done wonders in building nice cottages and schools and sinking a well where it was wanted, and founding a cooperative store, and in general doing whatever opportunity allows towards slowly improving this confused world. We saw Mr. and Mrs. H. Sidgwick. Perhaps you know that they have had and have the admirable public spirit to let their house and arrange to live for a year in the new Nuneham House, in order to facilitate matters for the double institution.
We are very well. Mr. Cross gets stronger and brighter every day. We often mention you, because you are associated with so many of my memories. He goes to town only once or twice a week, and unhappily is gone today through the rain and cold wind. His unmarried brother and sisters are going to leave Weybridge and live in London. We shall go to our winter nest there at the end of October. Our only bugbear -- it is a very little one -- is the having to make preliminary arrangements towards settling ourselves in the new house (4, Cheyne Walk). It is a quaint house, and a Mr. Armitage of Manchester, of whom you may have heard has been superintending the decoration and furnishing, but not to the exclusion of old things which we must carry and stow, especially wallings of books. I am become so lazy that I shrink from all such practical work, and pine if I have only to think of furniture.
Charles and Gertrude are very prosperous and happy and are bringing up their three little girls very nicely. They have just come back from a five weeks' holiday in Switzerland.
Here is a gossiping letter! -- I wish I had more edifying things to tell you. Please give my kind remembrances to Dr. Bodichon, and my love to Miss Marks whose hand writing is a pleasant sign to me that she is with you.
Always your loving
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 14 September 1880, 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/93099