GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 15 October 1878
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 15 October 1878
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 15 October 1878
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1878-10-15
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 15 October 1878
MS: Huntington Library. Extracts published: Cross, III, 340-341.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
October 15. 78.
Dearest Barbara
The days pass by without my finding time to tell you what I want to tell you -- how delighted I was to have a good account of you from Miss Marx, to whom I feel quite grateful for her nice letter. But every bright day -- and we have had many such -- has made me think the more of you and hope that you were drawing in strength from the clear, sweet air. I miss so much the hope I used always to have of seeing you in London and talking over everything just as we used to do -- in the way that will never exactly come with any one else. How unspeakably the lengthening of memories in common endears our old friends! The new are comparatively like foreigners, with whom one's talk is hemmed in by mutual ignorance. The one cannot express, the other cannot divine.
We have been a little better of late but the poor little man has still visitations of cramp and gout. Still he is as joyous as ever, 139 and we are intensely happy in our bit of country -- as happy as the cloudy aspect of public affairs will allow any one who cares for them to be, with the daily reading of the Times.
I hope that Miss Marx's companionship is replaced for you by some charming friend, and that you continue to like your sea-side abode. I unhappily mislaid the letter containing your address, but I imagine that this will find you without the number of your house in the Marina.
A neighbour 140 of ours was reciting to me yesterday some delicious bits of dialogue with a quaint Surrey woman -- e. g. "O ma'am, what I have gone through with my husband. He is so uneddicated -- he never had a tail-coat in his life!" Best love from us both.
Yours ever
Marian.
MS: Huntington Library. Extracts published: Cross, III, 340-341.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
October 15. 78.
Dearest Barbara
The days pass by without my finding time to tell you what I want to tell you -- how delighted I was to have a good account of you from Miss Marx, to whom I feel quite grateful for her nice letter. But every bright day -- and we have had many such -- has made me think the more of you and hope that you were drawing in strength from the clear, sweet air. I miss so much the hope I used always to have of seeing you in London and talking over everything just as we used to do -- in the way that will never exactly come with any one else. How unspeakably the lengthening of memories in common endears our old friends! The new are comparatively like foreigners, with whom one's talk is hemmed in by mutual ignorance. The one cannot express, the other cannot divine.
We have been a little better of late but the poor little man has still visitations of cramp and gout. Still he is as joyous as ever, 139 and we are intensely happy in our bit of country -- as happy as the cloudy aspect of public affairs will allow any one who cares for them to be, with the daily reading of the Times.
I hope that Miss Marx's companionship is replaced for you by some charming friend, and that you continue to like your sea-side abode. I unhappily mislaid the letter containing your address, but I imagine that this will find you without the number of your house in the Marina.
A neighbour 140 of ours was reciting to me yesterday some delicious bits of dialogue with a quaint Surrey woman -- e. g. "O ma'am, what I have gone through with my husband. He is so uneddicated -- he never had a tail-coat in his life!" Best love from us both.
Yours ever
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Witley, 15 October 1878, 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/93100