GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Lyons, 18 May 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Lyons, 18 May 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Lyons, 18 May 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1880-05-18
Place
Lyons
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Lyons, 18 May 1880
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 148-150.
Lyons, May 18. 1880.
Dearest Elma
We are pausing here for a day, 416 and welcome rain is falling to lay the dust, so that I feel at leisure to write you a little word about ourselves, as you desired me to do. Telling you that I am wonderfully well and able to take a great deal of exercise without fatigue makes me think sadly of the contrast this report makes with your poor encased limbs and patient endurance of weary nights and days. Any better account of yourself that you could send me to the Poste Restante, Milan, within the next ten days would be most gladly received. But if you have no good news to tell me, and if writing is a weariness, leave me in silence.
We have changed our projected route a little, and are going tomorrow to Grenoble whence we shall make the expedition to the Grande Chartreuse. After that we shall go under or over the Mont Cenis to Milan, keeping in northern Italy. I have never found June too hot for enjoyment in that region. Our journeying has been blessed with unbroken sunshine, and we are glad of this one grey rainy morning. Last evening we sat watching the sheet-lightning illuminating half the sky. One is inclined in these exceptional periods of life -- these rests from daily occupation -- to watch all we can see of what Nature is doing, and our journey through France has filled us with pictures of butter-cupped meadows, long avenues of poplars and towns lying warm in the sunshine. How well you know all these things! I found many changes in the Mus'e9e du Luxembourg since I last saw the pictures there, but I made some pleasant new acquaintances among the painters of French peasant life. The French, I think, succeed better in giving the true aspect of their common people, than our painters succeed in the same genre. Whom have we to pair with Jules Breton? 417 But this time I have been most delighted with tiny pictures, perfect in finish, by Feyen. 418
I wonder whether you are beginning to sleep better so that your head is less tired and you are better able to amuse the long hours. Give my love to the guardian angel Mrs. Menzies, and think of me always as one whose deepening experiences at least make her more tender towards all suffering, more glad of all joy for those whose lot has been brought near to her. Believe me, dear,
Yours always lovingly
M. A. Cross.
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 148-150.
Lyons, May 18. 1880.
Dearest Elma
We are pausing here for a day, 416 and welcome rain is falling to lay the dust, so that I feel at leisure to write you a little word about ourselves, as you desired me to do. Telling you that I am wonderfully well and able to take a great deal of exercise without fatigue makes me think sadly of the contrast this report makes with your poor encased limbs and patient endurance of weary nights and days. Any better account of yourself that you could send me to the Poste Restante, Milan, within the next ten days would be most gladly received. But if you have no good news to tell me, and if writing is a weariness, leave me in silence.
We have changed our projected route a little, and are going tomorrow to Grenoble whence we shall make the expedition to the Grande Chartreuse. After that we shall go under or over the Mont Cenis to Milan, keeping in northern Italy. I have never found June too hot for enjoyment in that region. Our journeying has been blessed with unbroken sunshine, and we are glad of this one grey rainy morning. Last evening we sat watching the sheet-lightning illuminating half the sky. One is inclined in these exceptional periods of life -- these rests from daily occupation -- to watch all we can see of what Nature is doing, and our journey through France has filled us with pictures of butter-cupped meadows, long avenues of poplars and towns lying warm in the sunshine. How well you know all these things! I found many changes in the Mus'e9e du Luxembourg since I last saw the pictures there, but I made some pleasant new acquaintances among the painters of French peasant life. The French, I think, succeed better in giving the true aspect of their common people, than our painters succeed in the same genre. Whom have we to pair with Jules Breton? 417 But this time I have been most delighted with tiny pictures, perfect in finish, by Feyen. 418
I wonder whether you are beginning to sleep better so that your head is less tired and you are better able to amuse the long hours. Give my love to the guardian angel Mrs. Menzies, and think of me always as one whose deepening experiences at least make her more tender towards all suffering, more glad of all joy for those whose lot has been brought near to her. Believe me, dear,
Yours always lovingly
M. A. Cross.
Signature
M. A. Cross.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Lyons, 18 May 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/93420