GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 4 January 1872
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 4 January 1872
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 4 January 1872
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1872-01-04
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 4 January 1872
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
North Bank | January 4. 1872.
My dear Sara
I hope that you have drawn the true inference from my three days' silence, namely that I have been away from home. We returned this afternoon -- rather earlier than we had intended, that I might consult Sir Henry Holland, my "inwards" having got all wrong again. This want of health would have hindered me from much enjoyment in seeing you just now, as it has hindered me from having much pleasure in a visit to some good friends in the country. I imagine, from what your letter tells me of your intentions, that you must already have got back to Coventry, so I shall send this scrap thither. Your sketch of circumstances at Ravensbourne implies that you have had to help others to be cheerful instead of being cheered by them. But this kind of sympathetic exertion is often more curative than mere reception -- only there is the troublesome winter cough! To bear that well seems to me almost an excuse for doing nothing else.
I am glad to hear a better account of Mr. Bray, which is at the same time a better account of Cara, if she has not broken down at the end of her nursing.
Please give them my love and greetings. I do earnestly hope that this year has comforts rather than anxieties in its lap for you all three. I suppose we must all of us accept a mixture of the anxieties, for those who are perfectly happy otherwise get their lungs or livers out of order.
Always, dear Sara, your affectionate
Pollian
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
North Bank | January 4. 1872.
My dear Sara
I hope that you have drawn the true inference from my three days' silence, namely that I have been away from home. We returned this afternoon -- rather earlier than we had intended, that I might consult Sir Henry Holland, my "inwards" having got all wrong again. This want of health would have hindered me from much enjoyment in seeing you just now, as it has hindered me from having much pleasure in a visit to some good friends in the country. I imagine, from what your letter tells me of your intentions, that you must already have got back to Coventry, so I shall send this scrap thither. Your sketch of circumstances at Ravensbourne implies that you have had to help others to be cheerful instead of being cheered by them. But this kind of sympathetic exertion is often more curative than mere reception -- only there is the troublesome winter cough! To bear that well seems to me almost an excuse for doing nothing else.
I am glad to hear a better account of Mr. Bray, which is at the same time a better account of Cara, if she has not broken down at the end of her nursing.
Please give them my love and greetings. I do earnestly hope that this year has comforts rather than anxieties in its lap for you all three. I suppose we must all of us accept a mixture of the anxieties, for those who are perfectly happy otherwise get their lungs or livers out of order.
Always, dear Sara, your affectionate
Pollian
Signature
Pollian
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 4 January 1872, 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/94053