GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, 28 August [1849]
Title
GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, 28 August [1849]
Title
GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, 28 August [1849]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1849-08-28
Place
Geneva
Letter Content
GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, 28 August [1849]
MS: Yale. Address: Charles Bray Esq | Rosehill | Coventry | England | Voie de France. Postmarks: GENEVE 29 AOUT | 49 | 2S; COVENTRY | SP 1 | 1849 | D. Extracts published: Cross, I, 217-219.
Plongeon Tuesday August 28th.
Dear Friends
It is so pleasant to write to you that I cannot resist the temptation to begin as soon as I have read your letter, though I have almost lost the use of my arms with rowing, and my pen straggles anywhere but in the right place. The boxes are not yet come, but since you have heard from McCracken I should think there is no cause for anxiety -- there is only the little annoyance of being without them. People here tell me that it takes a month to get things from England. A thousand thanks for all your kind offices. If the German books were come to you they might be forwarded to Mr. Dudfield, 66 Lower Thames St. London, within a fortnight from yesterday with directions to enclose them in the package for J. Monroe, 824 Geneva and I should then have them without much expense. But as you do not mention them, I am afraid you have seen nothing of them, though it is 4 or five months since they were ordered!
The St. Germains are gone -- alas! -- and the charming Frankfort people whom I liked almost as well. There is no one here of much interest now. M. de Herder, the two Prussians MM. de Pfuel, 2 English old maids, and an Irish family who came yesterday, Mlle. Rosa, Mlle. de Phaisan and Mrs. Locke who are the 3 oldest inhabitants. Madame de Ludwigsdorff, the cousin of Mlle. Rosa and the wife of an Austrian Baron, has been here for two days, and is coming again. She is handsome, spirited and clever, pure English by birth, but quite foreign in manners and appearance. 825 She and all the world besides are going to winter in Italy.
Nothing annoys me now -- I feel perfectly at home and shall really be comfortable when I have all my little matters about me. There has been the sad grief of hearing that Chrissey has lost her sweetest little girl 826 -- a trouble which goes to my heart, both for my sister's sake and for the real loss to my own affections. She was an angelic little being. I learned this in a letter from my sister Sarah 827 last week. All is well at Griff -- but my heart aches to think of Chrissey with her children ill of scarlet fever -- her husband almost frantic with grief and her own heart rent by the loss of this eldest little daughter. However I cannot regret that I am not there, for I am really good for nothing yet, and I feel that my future health and actions entirely depend on my recovering thoroughly my strength and spirit.
People alarm me by telling me of the terrible severity of the winters here -- but there are three reasons that incline me to remain at Plongeon rather than move to Paris which would on many accounts be preferable. 1st, I should save expense by keeping here. 2d, I shall soon feel quite en famille and shall be disinclined to enter a new world in which I should be the stared-at instead of the starer, and thirdly, people do not seem to think me quite old enough yet to ramble about at will. It would be very delightful to feel as I should at Paris that I could get to England in the middle of winter if I liked instead of being blockaded here until April. Also a short séjour at Paris would be interesting to me -- and winter is a good time to be there, whereas at Geneva one had better be a dormouse. Indeed there are so many advantages connected with being in Paris that if I thought my finances would hold out I should brave every thing else, though I confess I am more sensitive than I thought I should be to the idea that my being alone is odd. I thought my old appearance would have been a sufficient sanction and that the very idea of impropriety was ridiculous. Here however I am as sagely settled as possible, for Mde. de Valli'e8re is quite a sufficient mother and the Swiss ideas of propriety are rigid to excess. Mde. de Valli'e8re would not receive Mrs. Locke's daughter if she were to come, because she is separated from her husband. You may console the Mrs. T. Carters etc. therewith and assure them that I dare not look or say or do half what one does in England. As long as people carry a Mademoiselle before their name, there is far less liberty for them on the Continent than in England.
This place looks more lovely to me every day -- the lake, the town, the campagnes with their stately trees and pretty houses, the glorious mountains in the distance -- one can hardly believe one's self on earth -- one might live here and forget that there is such a thing as want or labour or sorrow. The perpetual presence of all this beauty has somewhat the effect of mesmerism or chloroform. I feel sometimes as if I were sinking into an agreeable state of numbness on the verge of unconsciousness and seem to want well pinching to rouse me. The other day (Sunday) there was a F'eate held on the lake -- the F'eate of Navigation. I went out with some other ladies in M. de Herder's boat at sunset and had the richest draught of beauty. All the boats of Geneva turned out in their best attire -- two very large ones fitted up for the occasion -- with a band and artillery. When the moon and stars came out there were beautiful fireworks sent up from the boats. The mingling of the silver with the golden rays on the rippled lake, the bright colors of the boats, the cannon, the music, the splendid fireworks, and the pale moon looking at it all with a sort of grave surprize, made up a scene of perfect enchantment -- and our dear old Mont Blanc was there in his white ermine robe. I rowed all the time, and hence comes my palsy.
I can perfectly fancy dear Mrs. Pears in her Leamington home. I hope you will let her know that I want to hear from her. How beautiful all that Foleshill life looks now -- like the distant Jura in the morning. She was such a sweet dear good friend to me. My walks with her, my little visits to them in the evening -- all is remembered. I suppose their house too is empty now. I am glad you have seen Fanny again -- any attention you show her is a real kindness to me, and I assure you she is worth it. The £40 were duly paid in to Messrs. Lombard and Odien Bank and I have received ten of them. I am very much amused with the Coventry gossip -- pray tell me as much of it as you can. You know, or you do not know, that my nature is so chameleon I shall lose all my identity unless you keep nourishing the old self with letters -- so pray write as much and as often as you can. The busin[ess n]ews 828 is not good -- alas alas get rich that you [may] have time [to say] riches are not worth caring for. I have recei[ved] no papers ye[t] and I do not know whether any have been desp[atched.] I assure you the four columns of the Coventry Herald would be as interesting to me as a love-letter. It jumps admirably with my humour to live in two worlds at once in this way. I possess my dearest friends and my old environment in my thoughts -- and another world of novelty and beauty in which I am actually moving -- and my contrariety of disposition always makes the world that lives in my thoughts the dearer of the two -- the one in which I more truly dwell. So after all I enjoy my friends most when I am away from them. I shall not say so though if I should live to rejoin you 6 or 7 months hence.
I shall want very warm clothing if I stay here and I am concerned to think that I have made so little provision in that way. There were many things such as shawls which would have been very useful to me and they lie in my wardrobe -- but I am of that happy race whom experience only can teach.
Sarah's departure 829 would be a loss -- but I like to think of her passing a few days with Mr. Hennell. I hope to hear from her soon. Why cannot Cara sleep o' nights? Because the Hungarians 830 don't prosper -- or the ribbons -- or because her "Bear" goes to bed late and makes a horrid noise -- or because she is not well? I hope you will tell me better things in the next letter. I suffer miserably from cold feet and am just this moment almost stupified from want of circulation. This is not at all fair for I use cold water and walking enough. The middle of the day is frequently intensely hot here -- the trees quite languishing for want of rain. Autumn has begun already.
Good-bye, dear creatures. Keep me for seven years longer and you will find out the use of me, 831 like all other pieces of trumpery.
Your
Mary Ann.
MS: Yale. Address: Charles Bray Esq | Rosehill | Coventry | England | Voie de France. Postmarks: GENEVE 29 AOUT | 49 | 2S; COVENTRY | SP 1 | 1849 | D. Extracts published: Cross, I, 217-219.
Plongeon Tuesday August 28th.
Dear Friends
It is so pleasant to write to you that I cannot resist the temptation to begin as soon as I have read your letter, though I have almost lost the use of my arms with rowing, and my pen straggles anywhere but in the right place. The boxes are not yet come, but since you have heard from McCracken I should think there is no cause for anxiety -- there is only the little annoyance of being without them. People here tell me that it takes a month to get things from England. A thousand thanks for all your kind offices. If the German books were come to you they might be forwarded to Mr. Dudfield, 66 Lower Thames St. London, within a fortnight from yesterday with directions to enclose them in the package for J. Monroe, 824 Geneva and I should then have them without much expense. But as you do not mention them, I am afraid you have seen nothing of them, though it is 4 or five months since they were ordered!
The St. Germains are gone -- alas! -- and the charming Frankfort people whom I liked almost as well. There is no one here of much interest now. M. de Herder, the two Prussians MM. de Pfuel, 2 English old maids, and an Irish family who came yesterday, Mlle. Rosa, Mlle. de Phaisan and Mrs. Locke who are the 3 oldest inhabitants. Madame de Ludwigsdorff, the cousin of Mlle. Rosa and the wife of an Austrian Baron, has been here for two days, and is coming again. She is handsome, spirited and clever, pure English by birth, but quite foreign in manners and appearance. 825 She and all the world besides are going to winter in Italy.
Nothing annoys me now -- I feel perfectly at home and shall really be comfortable when I have all my little matters about me. There has been the sad grief of hearing that Chrissey has lost her sweetest little girl 826 -- a trouble which goes to my heart, both for my sister's sake and for the real loss to my own affections. She was an angelic little being. I learned this in a letter from my sister Sarah 827 last week. All is well at Griff -- but my heart aches to think of Chrissey with her children ill of scarlet fever -- her husband almost frantic with grief and her own heart rent by the loss of this eldest little daughter. However I cannot regret that I am not there, for I am really good for nothing yet, and I feel that my future health and actions entirely depend on my recovering thoroughly my strength and spirit.
People alarm me by telling me of the terrible severity of the winters here -- but there are three reasons that incline me to remain at Plongeon rather than move to Paris which would on many accounts be preferable. 1st, I should save expense by keeping here. 2d, I shall soon feel quite en famille and shall be disinclined to enter a new world in which I should be the stared-at instead of the starer, and thirdly, people do not seem to think me quite old enough yet to ramble about at will. It would be very delightful to feel as I should at Paris that I could get to England in the middle of winter if I liked instead of being blockaded here until April. Also a short séjour at Paris would be interesting to me -- and winter is a good time to be there, whereas at Geneva one had better be a dormouse. Indeed there are so many advantages connected with being in Paris that if I thought my finances would hold out I should brave every thing else, though I confess I am more sensitive than I thought I should be to the idea that my being alone is odd. I thought my old appearance would have been a sufficient sanction and that the very idea of impropriety was ridiculous. Here however I am as sagely settled as possible, for Mde. de Valli'e8re is quite a sufficient mother and the Swiss ideas of propriety are rigid to excess. Mde. de Valli'e8re would not receive Mrs. Locke's daughter if she were to come, because she is separated from her husband. You may console the Mrs. T. Carters etc. therewith and assure them that I dare not look or say or do half what one does in England. As long as people carry a Mademoiselle before their name, there is far less liberty for them on the Continent than in England.
This place looks more lovely to me every day -- the lake, the town, the campagnes with their stately trees and pretty houses, the glorious mountains in the distance -- one can hardly believe one's self on earth -- one might live here and forget that there is such a thing as want or labour or sorrow. The perpetual presence of all this beauty has somewhat the effect of mesmerism or chloroform. I feel sometimes as if I were sinking into an agreeable state of numbness on the verge of unconsciousness and seem to want well pinching to rouse me. The other day (Sunday) there was a F'eate held on the lake -- the F'eate of Navigation. I went out with some other ladies in M. de Herder's boat at sunset and had the richest draught of beauty. All the boats of Geneva turned out in their best attire -- two very large ones fitted up for the occasion -- with a band and artillery. When the moon and stars came out there were beautiful fireworks sent up from the boats. The mingling of the silver with the golden rays on the rippled lake, the bright colors of the boats, the cannon, the music, the splendid fireworks, and the pale moon looking at it all with a sort of grave surprize, made up a scene of perfect enchantment -- and our dear old Mont Blanc was there in his white ermine robe. I rowed all the time, and hence comes my palsy.
I can perfectly fancy dear Mrs. Pears in her Leamington home. I hope you will let her know that I want to hear from her. How beautiful all that Foleshill life looks now -- like the distant Jura in the morning. She was such a sweet dear good friend to me. My walks with her, my little visits to them in the evening -- all is remembered. I suppose their house too is empty now. I am glad you have seen Fanny again -- any attention you show her is a real kindness to me, and I assure you she is worth it. The £40 were duly paid in to Messrs. Lombard and Odien Bank and I have received ten of them. I am very much amused with the Coventry gossip -- pray tell me as much of it as you can. You know, or you do not know, that my nature is so chameleon I shall lose all my identity unless you keep nourishing the old self with letters -- so pray write as much and as often as you can. The busin[ess n]ews 828 is not good -- alas alas get rich that you [may] have time [to say] riches are not worth caring for. I have recei[ved] no papers ye[t] and I do not know whether any have been desp[atched.] I assure you the four columns of the Coventry Herald would be as interesting to me as a love-letter. It jumps admirably with my humour to live in two worlds at once in this way. I possess my dearest friends and my old environment in my thoughts -- and another world of novelty and beauty in which I am actually moving -- and my contrariety of disposition always makes the world that lives in my thoughts the dearer of the two -- the one in which I more truly dwell. So after all I enjoy my friends most when I am away from them. I shall not say so though if I should live to rejoin you 6 or 7 months hence.
I shall want very warm clothing if I stay here and I am concerned to think that I have made so little provision in that way. There were many things such as shawls which would have been very useful to me and they lie in my wardrobe -- but I am of that happy race whom experience only can teach.
Sarah's departure 829 would be a loss -- but I like to think of her passing a few days with Mr. Hennell. I hope to hear from her soon. Why cannot Cara sleep o' nights? Because the Hungarians 830 don't prosper -- or the ribbons -- or because her "Bear" goes to bed late and makes a horrid noise -- or because she is not well? I hope you will tell me better things in the next letter. I suffer miserably from cold feet and am just this moment almost stupified from want of circulation. This is not at all fair for I use cold water and walking enough. The middle of the day is frequently intensely hot here -- the trees quite languishing for want of rain. Autumn has begun already.
Good-bye, dear creatures. Keep me for seven years longer and you will find out the use of me, 831 like all other pieces of trumpery.
Your
Mary Ann.
Signature
Mary Ann.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, 28 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/93162