GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Devizes, 30 November 1843
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Devizes, 30 November 1843
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Devizes, 30 November 1843
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1843-11-30
Place
Devizes
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Devizes, 30 November 1843
MS: Yale. Extract published: George Eliot and John Chapman, p. 24.
Devizes November 30th 1843.
My dear Friend,
We shall soon, I hope, be talking to each other [under your eyes,] for I have just written to my good Mary 498 telling her that I intend to be at the Coventry station by 9 o'clock on Monday evening, so prepare yourself to endure twenty kisses before Tuesday is over. I do not know whether to be glad or sorry, so I have come to a compromise with the contending feelings, and mean to indulge my grief at parting with my precious friends here till I reach home, and then let joy take complete possession. 499
I am going presently to meet a lady author, the only lion or rather lioness of the neighbourhood besides Tom Moore, 500 that I am likely to see, we having agreed in defiance of all the moralists to defer every expedition until my next visit. I must be like the Devizes poet who, Dr. B. tells me, thought it incumbent on him to mention what he did not seen in his description of the environs. Alike appear not to the view The house of Lansdowne and of Montagu.
This couplet reminds me that we had a new poem of Bernard Barton's at breakfast, printed for private circulation and sent as a present to Dr. Brabant one line of which is
Johnson and Beattie, Burke and Montagu, 501 so there are hopes for poetry yet, degenerate as the age may be.
Tell Mr. Bray there is a lady here who admires Fourier 502 and has lent me a book full of him and his isms, but heaven knows I shall have no time to read it; for the Dr. and I have meant to be very industrious. Every week I read Greek and read de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis, but the genius of sloth has possessed us and we have sent much new pavement to our future abode.
We are going to have a new book on the Immortality of the soul, the contents of which I shall have to report to you. I fear the carriage will be at the door in two or three minutes. Good bye till Tuesday, and then I will look at you as if I were what I truly am
Your affectionate
Mary Ann
MS: Yale. Extract published: George Eliot and John Chapman, p. 24.
Devizes November 30th 1843.
My dear Friend,
We shall soon, I hope, be talking to each other [under your eyes,] for I have just written to my good Mary 498 telling her that I intend to be at the Coventry station by 9 o'clock on Monday evening, so prepare yourself to endure twenty kisses before Tuesday is over. I do not know whether to be glad or sorry, so I have come to a compromise with the contending feelings, and mean to indulge my grief at parting with my precious friends here till I reach home, and then let joy take complete possession. 499
I am going presently to meet a lady author, the only lion or rather lioness of the neighbourhood besides Tom Moore, 500 that I am likely to see, we having agreed in defiance of all the moralists to defer every expedition until my next visit. I must be like the Devizes poet who, Dr. B. tells me, thought it incumbent on him to mention what he did not seen in his description of the environs. Alike appear not to the view The house of Lansdowne and of Montagu.
This couplet reminds me that we had a new poem of Bernard Barton's at breakfast, printed for private circulation and sent as a present to Dr. Brabant one line of which is
Johnson and Beattie, Burke and Montagu, 501 so there are hopes for poetry yet, degenerate as the age may be.
Tell Mr. Bray there is a lady here who admires Fourier 502 and has lent me a book full of him and his isms, but heaven knows I shall have no time to read it; for the Dr. and I have meant to be very industrious. Every week I read Greek and read de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis, but the genius of sloth has possessed us and we have sent much new pavement to our future abode.
We are going to have a new book on the Immortality of the soul, the contents of which I shall have to report to you. I fear the carriage will be at the door in two or three minutes. Good bye till Tuesday, and then I will look at you as if I were what I truly am
Your affectionate
Mary Ann
Signature
Mary Ann
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Devizes, 30 November 1843, 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/93236