GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, 5 August [1849]
Title
GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, 5 August [1849]
Title
GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, 5 August [1849]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1849-08-05
Place
Geneva
Letter Content
GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, 5 August [1849]
MS: Yale. Address: Charles Bray Esq | Rosehill | Coventry | Angleterre | Voie de France. Postmarks: GENEVE | 6 | AOUT | 49 | 11'bd M; COVENTRY | AU 9 | 1849 | D. Extracts published: Cross, I, 210-213.
Plongeon Sunday August 5.
Dear Friends
I hope my imagination paints truly when it shows me all of you seated with beaming faces round the tea-table at Rosehill. I shall be yearning to know that things as well as people are smiling on you -- but I am sure you will not let me wait for news of you longer than is necessary. Have you my letter written on Friday week to beg that you would send my passport by the first post after your arrival? I was as naughty as usual to forget it. My life here would be delightful if we could always keep the same set of people, but alas, I fear one generation will go and another come so fast that I shall not care to become acquainted with any of them. My good Mrs. Locke is not going -- that is one comfort. She is quite a mother to me -- helps me to buy my candles and do all my shopping -- takes care of me at dinner and quite rejoices when she sees me enjoy conversation or anything else. The St. Germains are delightful people -- the Marquise really seems to me the most charming person I ever saw, with kindness enough to make the ultra-politeness of her manners quite genuine. She is very good to me and says of me, "Je m'interesse vivement 'e0 Mademoiselle." The squinting Marquis is the most well-bred, harmless of men. He talks very little -- every sentence seems a terrible gestation, and comes forth fortissimo, but he generally bestows one on me, and seems especially to enjoy my poor tunes (mind you, all these trivialities are to satisfy your vanity -- not mine, because you are beginning to be ashamed of having loved me). The grey-headed gentleman who was here when I came was the Chevalier de Berray, the uncle of Mde. la Marquise. He got quite fond of talking philosophy with me before he went, but alas he and a very agreeable young man who was with him are gone to Aix-les-Bains.
The American ladies too are gone and in their place we have a lady from Frankfort with her daughter and governess. She arrived only yesterday so I have not yet said a word to her. The young German is the Baron de Herder -- the veritable grandson of the great Herder. I should think he is not more than two or three and twenty -- very good-natured, but a most determined enemy to all gallantry. I fancy he is a Communist, but he seems to have been joked about his opinions by Mde. de Valli'e8re and the rest until he has determined to keep a proud silence on such matters. He has begun to talk to me and I think we should become good friends -- but he too is gone on an expedition to M. Rosa. He is expecting his brother 807 to join him here on his return, but I fear they will not stay long. Mademoiselle Rosa is the only person who speaks English besides Mrs. Locke. She is about equally French and English -- rather a nice creature, but with a mere woman's head and mind. Mlle. de Phaisan 808 is a good old maid -- a native of Geneva -- she has spent three summers here -- but she goes into the town for the winter. Mlle. Elise, the gouvernante, is a German with a moral region that would rejoice Mr. Bray's eyes. Poor soul! she is in a land of strangers and often seems to feel her loneliness. Her situation is a very difficult one, and [die Angst] she says often brings on a pain at her heart.
Mde. de Valli'e8re is a woman of some reading, and considerable talent -- very fond of politics, a devourer of the journals -- with an opinion ready for you on any subject whatever. The poor woman has her share of anxieties -- her youngest child is not more than eighteen months old, her eldest son eighteen years -- and between these there are six more one of whom is an epileptic patient. It will be a serious loss to her to part with the St. Germain family -- there are three children and six servants, so that they occupy 6 or 7 rooms. I fear they will not stay longer than this month.
I should be quite indifferent to the world that comes or goes if once I had my boxes with all my books. A Mrs. Sydney, a Scotch lady who was here before I came, is gone to Bex, and has sent Mrs. Locke an account of the excellent living and accommodations to be had there for 3 francs a day. Mrs. Locke says she would go if there were an English clergyman there, but she does not feel good enough to do without a clergyman. So you see there is some use for these insipid sticks still. Last Sunday I went with Mde. de Valli'e8re to a small church near Plongeon 809 and I could easily have fancied myself in an independent chapel at home. The spirit of the sermon was not a whit more elevated than that of our friend Dr. Harris 810 -- the text "What shall I do to be saved" -- the answer of Jesus being blinked as usual. The people use books not larger than our little prayer-books containing the tunes of all the hymns they sing beautifully printed -- the clerk sets the tune and the singing is respectable though dronish. Today I have been to hear one of the most celebrated preachers, M. Me'fbnier. 811 His sermon was really eloquent -- all written down, but delivered with so much energy and feeling that you never thought of the book. It was very superior in its tone to what we usually hear in England. It is curious to notice how patriotism -- dévouement 'e0 la patrie -- is put in the sermons as the first of virtues, even before devotion to the church. We never hear of it in England after we leave school. After the sermon a form of prayer is read for the magistrates etc. -- nothing of this kind is introduced into the extempore prayer which is entirely spiritual. There is quite as great a majority of women in the churches here as in the Roman Catholic places and I am told this is invariable. The good Marquis goes with his family and servants all nicely drest to the Catholic church. They are a most orderly set of people -- there is nothing but their language and their geniality and politeness to distinguish them from one of the best of our English aristocratic families.
I am better, but not well. My limbs ache terribly sometimes, but I have everything to make me well. M. Prévost 812 has not been a second time. Mrs. Locke would insist on my writing to thank him for calling and to express my regret that I had not seen him, and I did so yesterday. I do not know whether you will approve of this. I have told you almost everything, but whatever I have omitted may be summed up in the one assurance that I am perfectly comfortable, that every one is kind to me and seems to like me. Your kind hearts will rejoice at this I know. Only remember that I am just as much interested in all that happens to you at Rosehill, as you are in what happens to me at Plongeon. Dear Sara, write to me. I am tired to death and can hardly fashion a sentence, so good-night dear souls. Pray that the motto of Geneva may become mine -- Post tenebras lux.
Your affectionate
Mary Ann.
MS: Yale. Address: Charles Bray Esq | Rosehill | Coventry | Angleterre | Voie de France. Postmarks: GENEVE | 6 | AOUT | 49 | 11'bd M; COVENTRY | AU 9 | 1849 | D. Extracts published: Cross, I, 210-213.
Plongeon Sunday August 5.
Dear Friends
I hope my imagination paints truly when it shows me all of you seated with beaming faces round the tea-table at Rosehill. I shall be yearning to know that things as well as people are smiling on you -- but I am sure you will not let me wait for news of you longer than is necessary. Have you my letter written on Friday week to beg that you would send my passport by the first post after your arrival? I was as naughty as usual to forget it. My life here would be delightful if we could always keep the same set of people, but alas, I fear one generation will go and another come so fast that I shall not care to become acquainted with any of them. My good Mrs. Locke is not going -- that is one comfort. She is quite a mother to me -- helps me to buy my candles and do all my shopping -- takes care of me at dinner and quite rejoices when she sees me enjoy conversation or anything else. The St. Germains are delightful people -- the Marquise really seems to me the most charming person I ever saw, with kindness enough to make the ultra-politeness of her manners quite genuine. She is very good to me and says of me, "Je m'interesse vivement 'e0 Mademoiselle." The squinting Marquis is the most well-bred, harmless of men. He talks very little -- every sentence seems a terrible gestation, and comes forth fortissimo, but he generally bestows one on me, and seems especially to enjoy my poor tunes (mind you, all these trivialities are to satisfy your vanity -- not mine, because you are beginning to be ashamed of having loved me). The grey-headed gentleman who was here when I came was the Chevalier de Berray, the uncle of Mde. la Marquise. He got quite fond of talking philosophy with me before he went, but alas he and a very agreeable young man who was with him are gone to Aix-les-Bains.
The American ladies too are gone and in their place we have a lady from Frankfort with her daughter and governess. She arrived only yesterday so I have not yet said a word to her. The young German is the Baron de Herder -- the veritable grandson of the great Herder. I should think he is not more than two or three and twenty -- very good-natured, but a most determined enemy to all gallantry. I fancy he is a Communist, but he seems to have been joked about his opinions by Mde. de Valli'e8re and the rest until he has determined to keep a proud silence on such matters. He has begun to talk to me and I think we should become good friends -- but he too is gone on an expedition to M. Rosa. He is expecting his brother 807 to join him here on his return, but I fear they will not stay long. Mademoiselle Rosa is the only person who speaks English besides Mrs. Locke. She is about equally French and English -- rather a nice creature, but with a mere woman's head and mind. Mlle. de Phaisan 808 is a good old maid -- a native of Geneva -- she has spent three summers here -- but she goes into the town for the winter. Mlle. Elise, the gouvernante, is a German with a moral region that would rejoice Mr. Bray's eyes. Poor soul! she is in a land of strangers and often seems to feel her loneliness. Her situation is a very difficult one, and [die Angst] she says often brings on a pain at her heart.
Mde. de Valli'e8re is a woman of some reading, and considerable talent -- very fond of politics, a devourer of the journals -- with an opinion ready for you on any subject whatever. The poor woman has her share of anxieties -- her youngest child is not more than eighteen months old, her eldest son eighteen years -- and between these there are six more one of whom is an epileptic patient. It will be a serious loss to her to part with the St. Germain family -- there are three children and six servants, so that they occupy 6 or 7 rooms. I fear they will not stay longer than this month.
I should be quite indifferent to the world that comes or goes if once I had my boxes with all my books. A Mrs. Sydney, a Scotch lady who was here before I came, is gone to Bex, and has sent Mrs. Locke an account of the excellent living and accommodations to be had there for 3 francs a day. Mrs. Locke says she would go if there were an English clergyman there, but she does not feel good enough to do without a clergyman. So you see there is some use for these insipid sticks still. Last Sunday I went with Mde. de Valli'e8re to a small church near Plongeon 809 and I could easily have fancied myself in an independent chapel at home. The spirit of the sermon was not a whit more elevated than that of our friend Dr. Harris 810 -- the text "What shall I do to be saved" -- the answer of Jesus being blinked as usual. The people use books not larger than our little prayer-books containing the tunes of all the hymns they sing beautifully printed -- the clerk sets the tune and the singing is respectable though dronish. Today I have been to hear one of the most celebrated preachers, M. Me'fbnier. 811 His sermon was really eloquent -- all written down, but delivered with so much energy and feeling that you never thought of the book. It was very superior in its tone to what we usually hear in England. It is curious to notice how patriotism -- dévouement 'e0 la patrie -- is put in the sermons as the first of virtues, even before devotion to the church. We never hear of it in England after we leave school. After the sermon a form of prayer is read for the magistrates etc. -- nothing of this kind is introduced into the extempore prayer which is entirely spiritual. There is quite as great a majority of women in the churches here as in the Roman Catholic places and I am told this is invariable. The good Marquis goes with his family and servants all nicely drest to the Catholic church. They are a most orderly set of people -- there is nothing but their language and their geniality and politeness to distinguish them from one of the best of our English aristocratic families.
I am better, but not well. My limbs ache terribly sometimes, but I have everything to make me well. M. Prévost 812 has not been a second time. Mrs. Locke would insist on my writing to thank him for calling and to express my regret that I had not seen him, and I did so yesterday. I do not know whether you will approve of this. I have told you almost everything, but whatever I have omitted may be summed up in the one assurance that I am perfectly comfortable, that every one is kind to me and seems to like me. Your kind hearts will rejoice at this I know. Only remember that I am just as much interested in all that happens to you at Rosehill, as you are in what happens to me at Plongeon. Dear Sara, write to me. I am tired to death and can hardly fashion a sentence, so good-night dear souls. Pray that the motto of Geneva may become mine -- Post tenebras lux.
Your affectionate
Mary Ann.
Signature
Mary Ann.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, 5 August [1849], 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/93131