GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Wildbad, 11 July 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Wildbad, 11 July 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Wildbad, 11 July 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1880-07-11
Place
Wildbad
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Wildbad, 11 July 1880
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 152-154.
Wildbad (in the borders of the Black Forest) July 11. 80.
Dearest Elma
We have been for the last few days enjoying this place, 454 and the fact that its baths are held marvellously efficacious in cases of rheumatism has made me think especially of you. I am wondering whether you have ever included it in your projects of travel. But still more I am wishing that I could know whether the relief you had felt when you last wrote to me has continued. If you could send a note -- a bulletin about yourself -- to Charles he would forward it to me on the earliest possibility. I am almost afraid that you may have moved from Holland Road, for I think you said that Mrs. Menzies was only to remain in town till the end of June. In any case, if you could send news of yourself to Charles he would be the surest medium for me to receive it in the uncertainty of our route homewards.
This is a very quiet bathing place in the usual green valley sheltered by vast pine-forests which cover hill and mountain and show their grand stems in the foreground. All the commodities of life are provided in abundance. The walks are inexhaustible and there is a magnificent drive to Baden which can be reached in seven hours (including time for the Mittagsessen and the rest). The only hideous things here are the churches, and the ugliest of the three stares at us opposite our sittingroom window. One sees many suffering people here, and it is not a resort of fashion, like Baden or Wiesbaden. We have taken it simply as a quiet resting-place in the long inevitable journey across Germany and we both find the air beneficent. But we are happily not invalids. Mr. Cross is well again and I am still without any ailment, able to take long walks, and to read aloud for any length of daytime.
Perhaps I am telling you what you already know, but I must mention that the baths here are said to have "a great amount of electricity" in them -- whatever may be the scientific value of that statement. And there is a Dr. Burckhardt here who has a good reputation as a physician. It is not yet decided whether we shall leave tomorrow or stay a few days longer, the decision depending on the possibility of our keeping our present rooms. When we go we shall drive to Baden and so get a relief from railway journeying.
My poor long-suffering one, I wish I could know that you are able to sit up and have your dear legs free from bondage. If Mrs. Menzies is still with you, pray offer her my love and best wishes, and Roland too -- ask him still to remember me affectionately as he has been used to do, I think, seeing that he has always behaved so prettily to me.
Always your faithful Friend
Mary Ann Cross.
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 152-154.
Wildbad (in the borders of the Black Forest) July 11. 80.
Dearest Elma
We have been for the last few days enjoying this place, 454 and the fact that its baths are held marvellously efficacious in cases of rheumatism has made me think especially of you. I am wondering whether you have ever included it in your projects of travel. But still more I am wishing that I could know whether the relief you had felt when you last wrote to me has continued. If you could send a note -- a bulletin about yourself -- to Charles he would forward it to me on the earliest possibility. I am almost afraid that you may have moved from Holland Road, for I think you said that Mrs. Menzies was only to remain in town till the end of June. In any case, if you could send news of yourself to Charles he would be the surest medium for me to receive it in the uncertainty of our route homewards.
This is a very quiet bathing place in the usual green valley sheltered by vast pine-forests which cover hill and mountain and show their grand stems in the foreground. All the commodities of life are provided in abundance. The walks are inexhaustible and there is a magnificent drive to Baden which can be reached in seven hours (including time for the Mittagsessen and the rest). The only hideous things here are the churches, and the ugliest of the three stares at us opposite our sittingroom window. One sees many suffering people here, and it is not a resort of fashion, like Baden or Wiesbaden. We have taken it simply as a quiet resting-place in the long inevitable journey across Germany and we both find the air beneficent. But we are happily not invalids. Mr. Cross is well again and I am still without any ailment, able to take long walks, and to read aloud for any length of daytime.
Perhaps I am telling you what you already know, but I must mention that the baths here are said to have "a great amount of electricity" in them -- whatever may be the scientific value of that statement. And there is a Dr. Burckhardt here who has a good reputation as a physician. It is not yet decided whether we shall leave tomorrow or stay a few days longer, the decision depending on the possibility of our keeping our present rooms. When we go we shall drive to Baden and so get a relief from railway journeying.
My poor long-suffering one, I wish I could know that you are able to sit up and have your dear legs free from bondage. If Mrs. Menzies is still with you, pray offer her my love and best wishes, and Roland too -- ask him still to remember me affectionately as he has been used to do, I think, seeing that he has always behaved so prettily to me.
Always your faithful Friend
Mary Ann Cross.
Signature
Mary Ann Cross.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Wildbad, 11 July 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/93422