GE to Mrs. Alexander Gilchrist, Shottermill, 9 May [1871]
Title
GE to Mrs. Alexander Gilchrist, Shottermill, 9 May [1871]
Title
GE to Mrs. Alexander Gilchrist, Shottermill, 9 May [1871]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Alexander Gilchrist
Date(s)
- 1871-05-09
Place
Shottermill
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Alexander Gilchrist, Shottermill, 9 May [1871]
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Extracts published: H. H. Gilchrist, ed., Anne Gilchrist, 1887, pp. 216-217.
Brookbank | May 9.
My dear Madam
While I am writing this I trust you are already comforted by Mr. Lewes's last letter, which told you that our horizon was clearing. Some small articles which were missing at first were afterwards discovered by energetic Mrs. Larby's ferreting, and the entire extra expense that we shall have incurred in small purchases, mendings, and scourings and chimney-sweepings will apparently be under a pound.
The green blind is now working properly in the bedroom, and the only matter of furniture that I am at all anxious about now is the gauziness of the blinds in the drawingroom which is broadly exposed to the afternoon sun. But to this we must resign ourselves. The keys are not yet forthcoming, but the process of inquiry has not yet been lengthy enough. Everything goes on slowly at Shotter Mill, and the mode of narration is that typified in "This is the house that Jack built." But there is an exquisite stillness in the sunshine, and a sense of distance from London hurry, which encourages the growth of patience.
Mrs. Garland's pace is proportionate to the other slownesses, but she impresses me as a worthy person, and her cooking -- indeed, all her attendance on us -- is of satisfactory quality. But we find the awkwardness of having only one person in the house, as well as the advantage (this latter being quietude). The butcher does not bring the meat, everybody grudges selling new milk, eggs are scarce, and an expedition we made yesterday in search of fowls showed us nothing more hopeful than some chickens six weeks old which the good woman observed were sometimes "eaten by the gentry with asparagus." Those eccentric people, the gentry! But have we not been reading about the Siege of Paris all the winter, and shall we complain while we get excellent bread and butter and many et cetaeras? Mrs. Symonds 283 kindly sent us a dish of asparagus yesterday which we ate (without the skinny chicken) and had a feast.
You will imagine that we are as fond of eating as Friar Tuck -- I am enlarging so on our commissariat. But you will also infer that we have no great evils to complain of, since I make so much of the small.
If I ever steal anything in my life, I think it will be the two little Sir Joshua's over the drawingroom mantelpiece. I assure you I have thought much of the worry we may have caused you while you are in a state of health with which I can sorrowfully sympathize. I do hope that we shall not have reason to trouble you any more.
Yours always sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Extracts published: H. H. Gilchrist, ed., Anne Gilchrist, 1887, pp. 216-217.
Brookbank | May 9.
My dear Madam
While I am writing this I trust you are already comforted by Mr. Lewes's last letter, which told you that our horizon was clearing. Some small articles which were missing at first were afterwards discovered by energetic Mrs. Larby's ferreting, and the entire extra expense that we shall have incurred in small purchases, mendings, and scourings and chimney-sweepings will apparently be under a pound.
The green blind is now working properly in the bedroom, and the only matter of furniture that I am at all anxious about now is the gauziness of the blinds in the drawingroom which is broadly exposed to the afternoon sun. But to this we must resign ourselves. The keys are not yet forthcoming, but the process of inquiry has not yet been lengthy enough. Everything goes on slowly at Shotter Mill, and the mode of narration is that typified in "This is the house that Jack built." But there is an exquisite stillness in the sunshine, and a sense of distance from London hurry, which encourages the growth of patience.
Mrs. Garland's pace is proportionate to the other slownesses, but she impresses me as a worthy person, and her cooking -- indeed, all her attendance on us -- is of satisfactory quality. But we find the awkwardness of having only one person in the house, as well as the advantage (this latter being quietude). The butcher does not bring the meat, everybody grudges selling new milk, eggs are scarce, and an expedition we made yesterday in search of fowls showed us nothing more hopeful than some chickens six weeks old which the good woman observed were sometimes "eaten by the gentry with asparagus." Those eccentric people, the gentry! But have we not been reading about the Siege of Paris all the winter, and shall we complain while we get excellent bread and butter and many et cetaeras? Mrs. Symonds 283 kindly sent us a dish of asparagus yesterday which we ate (without the skinny chicken) and had a feast.
You will imagine that we are as fond of eating as Friar Tuck -- I am enlarging so on our commissariat. But you will also infer that we have no great evils to complain of, since I make so much of the small.
If I ever steal anything in my life, I think it will be the two little Sir Joshua's over the drawingroom mantelpiece. I assure you I have thought much of the worry we may have caused you while you are in a state of health with which I can sorrowfully sympathize. I do hope that we shall not have reason to trouble you any more.
Yours always sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Alexander Gilchrist, Shottermill, 9 May [1871], 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/93195