GE to Mrs. Edward Burne-Jones, Witley, 9 September 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Edward Burne-Jones, Witley, 9 September 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Edward Burne-Jones, Witley, 9 September 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Edward Burne-Jones
Date(s)
- 1880-09-09
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Edward Burne-Jones, Witley, 9 September 1880
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 414-415.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
September 9. 1880.
Dearest Georgie
We have just come home after paying family visits in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, else I should have answered your letter earlier. The former one reached me in Venice when I was in great trouble on account of Mr. Cross's illness. I had had reason to believe that my letters ordered to be posted on the 5th of May had not been delivered, so I asked Charlie to inquire about the letter I wrote to you not because it demanded an answer, but because I wished you to know that I had written.
I am so glad to know that you have been enjoying our brief English summer healthily. The good harvest makes the country everywhere cheerful, and we have been in great corn districts where the fields full of sheaves or studded with ricks stretch wide as a prairie. Now we hope not to leave this place again till November when we intend to go to Chelsea for the winter and earliest spring.
I almost envy you the opportunity of seeing Wombwell's Menagerie. 475 I suppose I got more delight out of that itinerant institution when I was nine or ten years old than I have ever got out of Zoological gardens. The smells and the sawdust mingled themselves with my rapture -- everything was good.
It was very dear of you to write to me before you finished your holiday. My love attends you all, for I am
Your faithfully affectionate
M. A. Cross.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 414-415.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
September 9. 1880.
Dearest Georgie
We have just come home after paying family visits in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, else I should have answered your letter earlier. The former one reached me in Venice when I was in great trouble on account of Mr. Cross's illness. I had had reason to believe that my letters ordered to be posted on the 5th of May had not been delivered, so I asked Charlie to inquire about the letter I wrote to you not because it demanded an answer, but because I wished you to know that I had written.
I am so glad to know that you have been enjoying our brief English summer healthily. The good harvest makes the country everywhere cheerful, and we have been in great corn districts where the fields full of sheaves or studded with ricks stretch wide as a prairie. Now we hope not to leave this place again till November when we intend to go to Chelsea for the winter and earliest spring.
I almost envy you the opportunity of seeing Wombwell's Menagerie. 475 I suppose I got more delight out of that itinerant institution when I was nine or ten years old than I have ever got out of Zoological gardens. The smells and the sawdust mingled themselves with my rapture -- everything was good.
It was very dear of you to write to me before you finished your holiday. My love attends you all, for I am
Your faithfully affectionate
M. A. Cross.
Signature
M. A. Cross.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Edward Burne-Jones, Witley, 9 September 1880, 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/93374