GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 15 November 1869
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 15 November 1869
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 15 November 1869
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1869-11-15
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 15 November 1869
MS: Yale. Endorsed: "[Jubal] appeared soon after." Extracts published: Cross, III, 102-103.
North Bank | November 15. 69.
My dear Sara
I had intended, before I received your kind note this morning, to write to you in a few days, remembering our anniversary, and the many years in which I have had the sense and the proof of your generous friendship.
The day after our dear boy's funeral, we went into the quietest and most beautiful part of Surrey, four miles and a half from any railway station. Our home was a comfortable farm house, where we had three good young sisters as our hostesses. I was very much shaken in mind and body, and nothing but the deep calm of fields and woods would have had a beneficent effect on me. We both of us felt more than ever before the blessedness of being in the country, and we are come back much restored.
Please give my love to Miss Marshall and tell her that I always have faith in her kind feeling towards us, and am sure that no omission would come from want of good will on her part.
We have told Amelia always to say to friends who have been good enough to call and inquire, that we shall be at home at the end of this month. We were uncertain how long we should stay at Limpsfield in the first instance, and we do not care to see anyone beyond our own family just yet.
I admire your courage and endurance in sitting up for the meteors. See! that is one of the advantages of being a "femme sole."
Mr. Lewes says that he has seen the advertisement of your new volume, so I imagine that you are reposing or about to repose for a little while. That is perhaps why you can afford to spend so much strength in watching the skies.
It will interest you, I think, to know that a friend of ours, Mr. G. W. Clark, 114 the Public Orator at Cambridge, laid down his Oratorship as a preparatory step to writing a letter to his Bishop renouncing, or rather claiming to be considered free from, his clerical status, because he no longer believes what it presupposes him to believe. Two other men whom we know are about to renounce Cambridge Fellowships on the same ground.
Give my best love to Cara and tell her that I valued very much her letter which came in the first hours of our trouble. I shall always be cheered by any good news you can find time to tell me about either of you. The number of our birthdays to come shrinks fast, but I trust that as long [as] they are common to us both, dear Sara, we shall have loving memories of each other.
Ever your faithful
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: "[Jubal] appeared soon after." Extracts published: Cross, III, 102-103.
North Bank | November 15. 69.
My dear Sara
I had intended, before I received your kind note this morning, to write to you in a few days, remembering our anniversary, and the many years in which I have had the sense and the proof of your generous friendship.
The day after our dear boy's funeral, we went into the quietest and most beautiful part of Surrey, four miles and a half from any railway station. Our home was a comfortable farm house, where we had three good young sisters as our hostesses. I was very much shaken in mind and body, and nothing but the deep calm of fields and woods would have had a beneficent effect on me. We both of us felt more than ever before the blessedness of being in the country, and we are come back much restored.
Please give my love to Miss Marshall and tell her that I always have faith in her kind feeling towards us, and am sure that no omission would come from want of good will on her part.
We have told Amelia always to say to friends who have been good enough to call and inquire, that we shall be at home at the end of this month. We were uncertain how long we should stay at Limpsfield in the first instance, and we do not care to see anyone beyond our own family just yet.
I admire your courage and endurance in sitting up for the meteors. See! that is one of the advantages of being a "femme sole."
Mr. Lewes says that he has seen the advertisement of your new volume, so I imagine that you are reposing or about to repose for a little while. That is perhaps why you can afford to spend so much strength in watching the skies.
It will interest you, I think, to know that a friend of ours, Mr. G. W. Clark, 114 the Public Orator at Cambridge, laid down his Oratorship as a preparatory step to writing a letter to his Bishop renouncing, or rather claiming to be considered free from, his clerical status, because he no longer believes what it presupposes him to believe. Two other men whom we know are about to renounce Cambridge Fellowships on the same ground.
Give my best love to Cara and tell her that I valued very much her letter which came in the first hours of our trouble. I shall always be cheered by any good news you can find time to tell me about either of you. The number of our birthdays to come shrinks fast, but I trust that as long [as] they are common to us both, dear Sara, we shall have loving memories of each other.
Ever your faithful
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 15 November 1869, 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/93998