GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 1 September 1863
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 1 September 1863
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 1 September 1863
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1863-09-01
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 1 September 1863
MS: Yale. Mostly published: Cross, II, 364-365.
Blandford Sq. | September 1. 63.
Dear Cara and Sara
Much love to you both on that far away coast! I think I get a little freshness from the breeze that blows on you -- a little lifting of heart from your wide sky and Welsh mountains. 192 And the edge of autumn on the morning air makes even London a place in which one can believe in beauty and delight. Delicate scents of dried rose-leaves and the coming-on of the autumnal airs are two things that make me feel happy before I know why. Make the best of your fortnight and let me know that you go home bright and strong.
The Priory is all scaffolding and paint, and we are still in a nightmare of uncertainty about our boys -- awaiting one letter here and another there, and feeling in many ways the wide gap between theoretic longing and possible practice. But then I have by my side a dear companion who is a perpetual fountain of courage and cheerfulness and of considerate tenderness for my lack of those virtues. And besides that, I have -- Roman History! Perhaps that sounds like a bitter joke to you who are looking at the sea and sky and not thinking of Roman History at all. But this too, read aright, has its Gospel and Revelation. I read it much as I used to read a chapter in the Acts or Epistles. Mommsen's Hist[ory] of Rome is so fine that I count all minds graceless who read it without the deepest stirrings of heart.
Farewell
Marian.
MS: Yale. Mostly published: Cross, II, 364-365.
Blandford Sq. | September 1. 63.
Dear Cara and Sara
Much love to you both on that far away coast! I think I get a little freshness from the breeze that blows on you -- a little lifting of heart from your wide sky and Welsh mountains. 192 And the edge of autumn on the morning air makes even London a place in which one can believe in beauty and delight. Delicate scents of dried rose-leaves and the coming-on of the autumnal airs are two things that make me feel happy before I know why. Make the best of your fortnight and let me know that you go home bright and strong.
The Priory is all scaffolding and paint, and we are still in a nightmare of uncertainty about our boys -- awaiting one letter here and another there, and feeling in many ways the wide gap between theoretic longing and possible practice. But then I have by my side a dear companion who is a perpetual fountain of courage and cheerfulness and of considerate tenderness for my lack of those virtues. And besides that, I have -- Roman History! Perhaps that sounds like a bitter joke to you who are looking at the sea and sky and not thinking of Roman History at all. But this too, read aright, has its Gospel and Revelation. I read it much as I used to read a chapter in the Acts or Epistles. Mommsen's Hist[ory] of Rome is so fine that I count all minds graceless who read it without the deepest stirrings of heart.
Farewell
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 1 September 1863, 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/93202