GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 14-15 September 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 14-15 September 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 14-15 September 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1880-09-14–<br /> 1880-09-15
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 14-15 September 1880
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 156-159.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
September 14. 80.
Dearest Elma
I trust that the change announced in your letter is both for good and because of good. You would have had a scribble from me again long ago if we had not been paying visits to friends in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire during which my time and strength were quite absorbed by immediate calls on them.
Do you know that your angelic friend Mrs. Menzies was so good as to write me a letter telling about you, soon after I wrote last? It was very sweet of her to do it, and her account of you had its sweetness too though it convinced me of what I had before suspected, namely, that you make too light of your sufferings in your reports to me. My poor, poor dear -- what must it be to have at once acute pain and sleeplessness! And to be imprisoned and shackled and want strength even to be amused. But words seem all presumptuous and hard when they come from those at ease to those who are being tortured.
The words you, in your lovingness, like best to hear are such as tell you of well-being in the lot of others. We are just now living in an oasis of peace and content. My (Scotch) husband looks better and feels stronger every day, and acts more and more completely as my guardian angel. I allow your triumph at my having committed my life to a Scotchman, but did I ever say that the best Scotch were not better than the best English? I believe they are, as a general rule, but one has one's reserves for those best English that happen to have been best to oneself. My soul is often too full of past and present together and seems hardly strong enough for the double weight, but no woman could be helped more than I am.
I cannot help imagining that the mere change from Ben Rhydding 477 must be some relief to you, but you may have said something about it which I have not thoroughly read, for I gave your letter to Mr. Cross and he has carried it away in his pocket -- which admonishes me that I may as well keep my letter open till he comes back from town, since I have not your address before me.
Wednesday M[ornin]g. I see that you only say [Thank God] 'e0propos of your quitting Ben Rhydding. But the ability to make a change is something for me to be glad of on your behalf. Matlock is a lovely place -- a fond old remembrance of mine from days when I used to travel with my Father. Poor Savage, 478 the novelist, who was many many years racked with rheumatism, said he hated every place in turn, because no place made him well. But it is not so with you. I think -- at least I can't infer that it is from your being tired of Ben Rhydding, for I have always been sure that I should think it an outer circle of the Inferno.
Bless you, dear, for all your goodness. I look forward to the time when you will be able to say [I am well] -- but I cannot believe, as AEneas pretended, [Perhaps even these days will be a joy to you to look back upon.] 479 No -- we can never be glad that you had all this torture, but oh how glad, when it shall have had an end! Write to me news of yourself.
Your affectionate
M. A. C.
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 156-159.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
September 14. 80.
Dearest Elma
I trust that the change announced in your letter is both for good and because of good. You would have had a scribble from me again long ago if we had not been paying visits to friends in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire during which my time and strength were quite absorbed by immediate calls on them.
Do you know that your angelic friend Mrs. Menzies was so good as to write me a letter telling about you, soon after I wrote last? It was very sweet of her to do it, and her account of you had its sweetness too though it convinced me of what I had before suspected, namely, that you make too light of your sufferings in your reports to me. My poor, poor dear -- what must it be to have at once acute pain and sleeplessness! And to be imprisoned and shackled and want strength even to be amused. But words seem all presumptuous and hard when they come from those at ease to those who are being tortured.
The words you, in your lovingness, like best to hear are such as tell you of well-being in the lot of others. We are just now living in an oasis of peace and content. My (Scotch) husband looks better and feels stronger every day, and acts more and more completely as my guardian angel. I allow your triumph at my having committed my life to a Scotchman, but did I ever say that the best Scotch were not better than the best English? I believe they are, as a general rule, but one has one's reserves for those best English that happen to have been best to oneself. My soul is often too full of past and present together and seems hardly strong enough for the double weight, but no woman could be helped more than I am.
I cannot help imagining that the mere change from Ben Rhydding 477 must be some relief to you, but you may have said something about it which I have not thoroughly read, for I gave your letter to Mr. Cross and he has carried it away in his pocket -- which admonishes me that I may as well keep my letter open till he comes back from town, since I have not your address before me.
Wednesday M[ornin]g. I see that you only say [Thank God] 'e0propos of your quitting Ben Rhydding. But the ability to make a change is something for me to be glad of on your behalf. Matlock is a lovely place -- a fond old remembrance of mine from days when I used to travel with my Father. Poor Savage, 478 the novelist, who was many many years racked with rheumatism, said he hated every place in turn, because no place made him well. But it is not so with you. I think -- at least I can't infer that it is from your being tired of Ben Rhydding, for I have always been sure that I should think it an outer circle of the Inferno.
Bless you, dear, for all your goodness. I look forward to the time when you will be able to say [I am well] -- but I cannot believe, as AEneas pretended, [Perhaps even these days will be a joy to you to look back upon.] 479 No -- we can never be glad that you had all this torture, but oh how glad, when it shall have had an end! Write to me news of yourself.
Your affectionate
M. A. C.
Signature
M. A. C.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 14-15 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/93427