GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 27 June 1878
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 27 June 1878
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 27 June 1878
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1878-06-27
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 27 June 1878
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 108-110.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
June 27. 78.
Dearest Elma
The day before yesterday came your sweet words with the bit of heaven-scented plant -- and may I not say the sweet handkerchiefs, since these too will always carry a spiritual odour of the love that provided them?
We are in the country, you see, but several things are wanting to our satisfaction, and first of all some assurance that the brevity of the pencilled love-message is not a sign of your being again afflicted with some bodily ailment. Perhaps you mean to let us know more about you by and by. At present I am happily certain that you are still my good Elma full of delicate devices for giving pleasure to your aged mother and letting your generosity fall like the rain on the just and the unjust. But I am all the while anxious lest you are making my pleasure your compensation for some suffering of your own -- rheumatism or other ill which you choose not to r'e9pandre by betraying.
You will not, I suppose, make your flitting till the autumn, and we like to think that when you do so you will not be subject to the selfinflicted grievances of blundering from which we unpractical mortals are suffering -- over and above the more excusable mistakes of uninterested workmen. I have a fine genius for knowing that I have bought or ordered the wrong thing as soon as it is brought home, and hence my house comes to represent with some accuracy what I least prefer -- a sort of scum thrown up by my poor mind in the boiling agitation of shopping.
Never mind! The Summer is here, promising to save the country from a bad harvest, and the Congress is there promising to save it from war.
My only real trouble is, that my Little Man is sadly out of health, racked with cramps from suppressed gout and feeling his inward economy all wrong. This morning he rose at six and had a walk before breakfast, looking and eating the better for the exercise in bright coolness of the morning.
Let us know how Roland goes on, and that Mrs. Menzies is your unfailing companion. Our love includes them both when it turns our mind towards you.
Always your faithful and tender
Mutter.
The handkerchiefs are quite perfect. So says Elizabeth, ratifying my own opinion, as she usually does with encouraging condescension. Poor thing, she is going to marry "beneath her station," and entering on griefs she knows not of.
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 108-110.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
June 27. 78.
Dearest Elma
The day before yesterday came your sweet words with the bit of heaven-scented plant -- and may I not say the sweet handkerchiefs, since these too will always carry a spiritual odour of the love that provided them?
We are in the country, you see, but several things are wanting to our satisfaction, and first of all some assurance that the brevity of the pencilled love-message is not a sign of your being again afflicted with some bodily ailment. Perhaps you mean to let us know more about you by and by. At present I am happily certain that you are still my good Elma full of delicate devices for giving pleasure to your aged mother and letting your generosity fall like the rain on the just and the unjust. But I am all the while anxious lest you are making my pleasure your compensation for some suffering of your own -- rheumatism or other ill which you choose not to r'e9pandre by betraying.
You will not, I suppose, make your flitting till the autumn, and we like to think that when you do so you will not be subject to the selfinflicted grievances of blundering from which we unpractical mortals are suffering -- over and above the more excusable mistakes of uninterested workmen. I have a fine genius for knowing that I have bought or ordered the wrong thing as soon as it is brought home, and hence my house comes to represent with some accuracy what I least prefer -- a sort of scum thrown up by my poor mind in the boiling agitation of shopping.
Never mind! The Summer is here, promising to save the country from a bad harvest, and the Congress is there promising to save it from war.
My only real trouble is, that my Little Man is sadly out of health, racked with cramps from suppressed gout and feeling his inward economy all wrong. This morning he rose at six and had a walk before breakfast, looking and eating the better for the exercise in bright coolness of the morning.
Let us know how Roland goes on, and that Mrs. Menzies is your unfailing companion. Our love includes them both when it turns our mind towards you.
Always your faithful and tender
Mutter.
The handkerchiefs are quite perfect. So says Elizabeth, ratifying my own opinion, as she usually does with encouraging condescension. Poor thing, she is going to marry "beneath her station," and entering on griefs she knows not of.
Signature
Mutter.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 27 June 1878, 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/93431