GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 27 May [1852]
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 27 May [1852]
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 27 May [1852]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1852-05-27
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 27 May [1852]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1852. Extracts published: Cross, I, 281-282; George Eliot and John Chapman, pp. 53-54.
Strand | May 27.
Dearest Cara
Delighted to have a letter from you once again, and to know that the tooth-ache has fled -- without carrying away the tooth, I hope.
You talk of poor Mr. Chapman's laurels -- alas, alas, he is suffering the most torturing anxiety, advertising for a partner in half-despair of getting another kind of aid from Mr. Gardner. (These are secrets of course). The immediate difficulty is how to pay the authorship of the next number of the W.R. -- a sum of £250!
He sits in the shop the greater part of the day now, and is about to part with Mr. Beveridge, as a step in retrenchment. I suppose I am telling you these things on the ordinary principle of consolation -- "You see there are others as badly off as you" -- but I am afraid this is no balm to you good creatures who have the weakness to care almost as much for other people's sorrows as for your own.
The weather is horrid and depresses me more than I have ever felt it before. I look like one of those old hags we used to see by the wayside in Italy -- only a little worse, for want of the dark eyes and dark hair in contrast with the parchment.
My brightest spot next to my love of old friends, is the deliciously calm new friendship that Herbert Spencer gives me. We see each other every day and have a delightful camaraderie in everything. But for him, my life would be desolate enough now, with poor Mr. C. so occupied and so sad -- but he runs away with a great deal of my time.
Kate Martineau called the other day with a friend of hers. I have not been to see the Mackays yet. The Chapmans brought rather a melancholy account of him. They think him rather worse than otherwise for the marriage. 98 I am so grieved to hear that Sara does not get better. What a wretched lot of old shrivelled creatures we shall be bye-and-bye. Never mind, the uglier we get in the eyes of others the lovelier we shall be to each other -- that has always been my firm faith about friendship, and now it is in a slight degree my experience.
Has Mr. Bray described to you Millais' picture of [the Huguenot
Knight]? 99 The face of the woman is never to be forgotten -- I wish you could see it.
The Americans happily are pouring in now -- hitherto there has been an alarming paucity of lodgers.
Miss Parkes had a grand ball last night. I was asked, but refused to go. 100 I hug letters from you all with rapture -- do let me hear as often as you can. Madame D'Albert has sent me the sweetest letter just like herself and I feel grateful to have such a heart remembering and loving me on the other side of the Jura. They are very well and flourishing.
A thousand loves to Sara and Mr. Bray.
Your
Marian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1852. Extracts published: Cross, I, 281-282; George Eliot and John Chapman, pp. 53-54.
Strand | May 27.
Dearest Cara
Delighted to have a letter from you once again, and to know that the tooth-ache has fled -- without carrying away the tooth, I hope.
You talk of poor Mr. Chapman's laurels -- alas, alas, he is suffering the most torturing anxiety, advertising for a partner in half-despair of getting another kind of aid from Mr. Gardner. (These are secrets of course). The immediate difficulty is how to pay the authorship of the next number of the W.R. -- a sum of £250!
He sits in the shop the greater part of the day now, and is about to part with Mr. Beveridge, as a step in retrenchment. I suppose I am telling you these things on the ordinary principle of consolation -- "You see there are others as badly off as you" -- but I am afraid this is no balm to you good creatures who have the weakness to care almost as much for other people's sorrows as for your own.
The weather is horrid and depresses me more than I have ever felt it before. I look like one of those old hags we used to see by the wayside in Italy -- only a little worse, for want of the dark eyes and dark hair in contrast with the parchment.
My brightest spot next to my love of old friends, is the deliciously calm new friendship that Herbert Spencer gives me. We see each other every day and have a delightful camaraderie in everything. But for him, my life would be desolate enough now, with poor Mr. C. so occupied and so sad -- but he runs away with a great deal of my time.
Kate Martineau called the other day with a friend of hers. I have not been to see the Mackays yet. The Chapmans brought rather a melancholy account of him. They think him rather worse than otherwise for the marriage. 98 I am so grieved to hear that Sara does not get better. What a wretched lot of old shrivelled creatures we shall be bye-and-bye. Never mind, the uglier we get in the eyes of others the lovelier we shall be to each other -- that has always been my firm faith about friendship, and now it is in a slight degree my experience.
Has Mr. Bray described to you Millais' picture of [the Huguenot
Knight]? 99 The face of the woman is never to be forgotten -- I wish you could see it.
The Americans happily are pouring in now -- hitherto there has been an alarming paucity of lodgers.
Miss Parkes had a grand ball last night. I was asked, but refused to go. 100 I hug letters from you all with rapture -- do let me hear as often as you can. Madame D'Albert has sent me the sweetest letter just like herself and I feel grateful to have such a heart remembering and loving me on the other side of the Jura. They are very well and flourishing.
A thousand loves to Sara and Mr. Bray.
Your
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 27 May [1852], 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/93298