GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 12 September 1870
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 12 September 1870
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 12 September 1870
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1870-09-12
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 12 September 1870
MS: Mrs. Hennell Taylor. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
September 12. 70.
My dear Cara
Your letter this morning responds to what I have been feeling continually. Surely those human beings who have any love and value for each other should cling together now and keep the heavenly fire alive. We think of hardly anything but the War, and spend a great portion of our day in reading about it. 214 The deplorable demoralization of the French army and people divides one's sorrow with the horrible carnage. And every day now one shudders in expectation of what may happen in Paris: the people flying at each other's throats will be worse than the enemy's shells.
I am cheered this morning -- after a great deal of gloomy talk yesterday -- by your letter and the sunshine, which go well together. The news about your book 215 is very welcome. The thought of doing it was so felicitous, and now it seems to have found a good destination.
We are very well in health now, for such rickety furniture as we are. Mr. Lewes works a little in the mornings and is none the worse. We have had lately the (to our feelings) good news that Bertie is engaged [to be married] in due time, [one line at bottom of page cut out] among the Transval colonists, whose father has been long established in Bertie's neighbourhood. 216 Since Thornie's death we have especially desired this foundation of a lasting companionship.
We have not seen Mr. and Mrs. Call since our return, so that the news about Frank was unknown to us. One would have felt a more unmixed hope for his future if he had gone to America -- but where in the world can one feel quite easy about young creatures? [One line cut out.] Sara, I trust, is still feeling an afterglow from her sea-side enjoyment. I imagine you all taking, together or apart, delicious autumn walks over the fields, though the fields must be greatly changed towards Radford since the far-off days when I knew them.
Your mention of the Sheepshanks's and their share in that calamity of the wreck, has made me reflect that old Mr. Sheepshanks 217 must be dead now, and that the family would be more changed to my eyes than the Radford fields. Other Coventry people are more within reach of my imagination -- Mrs. Whittem and Mrs. Cash, for example, to whom I should like you to offer my affectionate remembrances when they happen to speak of me. -- You are as free from ailments as a goddess, so I never wonder how you are physically, but Mr. Bray is more assailable -- though not, I hope, suffering from his cough in this fine season.
Mr. Lewes's mother is 83 and is likely enough to outlive us, while a young girl who acts as her companion and attendant is threatened with life-long lameness from disease in the knee. 218 Such is the combination of things which according to Mr. Froude's philosophical remarks in his History "we owe first to Providence and next to accidents"! Ever, dear Cara,
Your affectionate
Marian.
MS: Mrs. Hennell Taylor. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
September 12. 70.
My dear Cara
Your letter this morning responds to what I have been feeling continually. Surely those human beings who have any love and value for each other should cling together now and keep the heavenly fire alive. We think of hardly anything but the War, and spend a great portion of our day in reading about it. 214 The deplorable demoralization of the French army and people divides one's sorrow with the horrible carnage. And every day now one shudders in expectation of what may happen in Paris: the people flying at each other's throats will be worse than the enemy's shells.
I am cheered this morning -- after a great deal of gloomy talk yesterday -- by your letter and the sunshine, which go well together. The news about your book 215 is very welcome. The thought of doing it was so felicitous, and now it seems to have found a good destination.
We are very well in health now, for such rickety furniture as we are. Mr. Lewes works a little in the mornings and is none the worse. We have had lately the (to our feelings) good news that Bertie is engaged [to be married] in due time, [one line at bottom of page cut out] among the Transval colonists, whose father has been long established in Bertie's neighbourhood. 216 Since Thornie's death we have especially desired this foundation of a lasting companionship.
We have not seen Mr. and Mrs. Call since our return, so that the news about Frank was unknown to us. One would have felt a more unmixed hope for his future if he had gone to America -- but where in the world can one feel quite easy about young creatures? [One line cut out.] Sara, I trust, is still feeling an afterglow from her sea-side enjoyment. I imagine you all taking, together or apart, delicious autumn walks over the fields, though the fields must be greatly changed towards Radford since the far-off days when I knew them.
Your mention of the Sheepshanks's and their share in that calamity of the wreck, has made me reflect that old Mr. Sheepshanks 217 must be dead now, and that the family would be more changed to my eyes than the Radford fields. Other Coventry people are more within reach of my imagination -- Mrs. Whittem and Mrs. Cash, for example, to whom I should like you to offer my affectionate remembrances when they happen to speak of me. -- You are as free from ailments as a goddess, so I never wonder how you are physically, but Mr. Bray is more assailable -- though not, I hope, suffering from his cough in this fine season.
Mr. Lewes's mother is 83 and is likely enough to outlive us, while a young girl who acts as her companion and attendant is threatened with life-long lameness from disease in the knee. 218 Such is the combination of things which according to Mr. Froude's philosophical remarks in his History "we owe first to Providence and next to accidents"! Ever, dear Cara,
Your affectionate
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 12 September 1870, 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/93268