GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 2 March 1858
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 2 March 1858
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 2 March 1858
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1858-03-02
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 2 March 1858
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 15-16.
Richmond | March 2. 58.
Dear Sara
We spent a very pleasant couple of hours with Mr. and Mrs. Call last Friday. 1091 It was worth a journey on a cold dusty day to see two faces beaming kindness and happiness. I was very glad too to shake hands again with Miss Marshall, 1092 who is mixed up with many grateful memories in my mind. She had her bonnet on before we left, ready to go and see that things were in order in her new house.
We don't migrate till the first week in April 1093 when, one hopes, the wind will have changed its mind. Yes, I know you have been at Munich. When you write again, try and think of what you liked best there, that I may associate you with it. I dare say we shall see Salzburg, but we don't form more than general plans beforehand. Perhaps we may go to
Dresden, perhaps not: we leave room for the impr'e9vu, which Louis Blanc found so sadly wanting in Mr. Morgan's millennial village. 1094
You are among the exceptional people who say pleasant things to their friends, and don't feel a too exclusive satisfaction in their misfortunes. We like to hear of your interest in Mr. Lewes's books -- at least I am very voracious of such details. I keep the pretty letters that are written to him; and we have had some really important ones from the scientific big-wigs about the "Sea-Side Studies." The reception of the book in that quarter has been quite beyond our expectations. Eight hundred copies were sold at once, in the first subscription, so there is a good chance of a second edition being wanted before the year is out. There is a great deal of close, hard work in the book, and every one who knows what scientific work is, necessarily perceives this; happily, many have been generous enough to express their recognition in a hearty way.
I enter so deeply into everything you say about your mother. To me that old old popular truism "We can never have but one mother" has worlds of meaning in it, and I think with more sympathy of the satisfaction you feel in at last being allowed to wait on her, than I should of anything else you could tell me. I wish we saw more of that sweet human piety that feels tenderly and reverently towards the aged.
We had heard that Francis Newman wrote the Rel[igious] Weakness of Prot[estantism] but had not heard so favourable an account of its reception. Dr. Chapman has been announcing a visit to us repeatedly since the appearance of the Review, but we have not yet seen him. He is, I dare say, overwhelmed with anxieties and occupations, just now that he is entering his new house in Albion Street.
Do you know that Miss Parkes is the editress of the Englishwoman's Journal, which you see advertised? Co-editress, at least, with Miss Hayes. 1095 She gave me the first number the other day when I called on her at the office. It is just middling. Her own first paper on the Profession of the Teacher, has some good stuff in it: I can't help crying over the stories of those superannuated governesses. If you haven't seen the Magazine I will send it you. Bessie has talent and real ardour for all goodness, but I fear Miss Hayes has been chosen on the charitable ground that she had nothing else to do in the world. There is something more piteous almost than soapless poverty in this application of feminine incapacity to Literature.
I can't be very sorry that Nelly should have measles now. For I remember how very ill I was with the disease, when I was several years older than she is, and I suppose the older one is, the more one suffers from those inevitable things.
Give my love to Mrs. John Cash, and tell her I shall rejoice in her joy when she has got safely through the terrible hour.
We saw such a fine photograph of Livingstone the other day -- just what one would expect him to be. It is a thousand pities, there is that hideous one at the beginning of his book. 1096 And beside it we saw a portrait of Bulwer! Fancy the contrast. Bulwer looks more of a sham even than his novels. Love to all,
From thine always,
Marian.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 15-16.
Richmond | March 2. 58.
Dear Sara
We spent a very pleasant couple of hours with Mr. and Mrs. Call last Friday. 1091 It was worth a journey on a cold dusty day to see two faces beaming kindness and happiness. I was very glad too to shake hands again with Miss Marshall, 1092 who is mixed up with many grateful memories in my mind. She had her bonnet on before we left, ready to go and see that things were in order in her new house.
We don't migrate till the first week in April 1093 when, one hopes, the wind will have changed its mind. Yes, I know you have been at Munich. When you write again, try and think of what you liked best there, that I may associate you with it. I dare say we shall see Salzburg, but we don't form more than general plans beforehand. Perhaps we may go to
Dresden, perhaps not: we leave room for the impr'e9vu, which Louis Blanc found so sadly wanting in Mr. Morgan's millennial village. 1094
You are among the exceptional people who say pleasant things to their friends, and don't feel a too exclusive satisfaction in their misfortunes. We like to hear of your interest in Mr. Lewes's books -- at least I am very voracious of such details. I keep the pretty letters that are written to him; and we have had some really important ones from the scientific big-wigs about the "Sea-Side Studies." The reception of the book in that quarter has been quite beyond our expectations. Eight hundred copies were sold at once, in the first subscription, so there is a good chance of a second edition being wanted before the year is out. There is a great deal of close, hard work in the book, and every one who knows what scientific work is, necessarily perceives this; happily, many have been generous enough to express their recognition in a hearty way.
I enter so deeply into everything you say about your mother. To me that old old popular truism "We can never have but one mother" has worlds of meaning in it, and I think with more sympathy of the satisfaction you feel in at last being allowed to wait on her, than I should of anything else you could tell me. I wish we saw more of that sweet human piety that feels tenderly and reverently towards the aged.
We had heard that Francis Newman wrote the Rel[igious] Weakness of Prot[estantism] but had not heard so favourable an account of its reception. Dr. Chapman has been announcing a visit to us repeatedly since the appearance of the Review, but we have not yet seen him. He is, I dare say, overwhelmed with anxieties and occupations, just now that he is entering his new house in Albion Street.
Do you know that Miss Parkes is the editress of the Englishwoman's Journal, which you see advertised? Co-editress, at least, with Miss Hayes. 1095 She gave me the first number the other day when I called on her at the office. It is just middling. Her own first paper on the Profession of the Teacher, has some good stuff in it: I can't help crying over the stories of those superannuated governesses. If you haven't seen the Magazine I will send it you. Bessie has talent and real ardour for all goodness, but I fear Miss Hayes has been chosen on the charitable ground that she had nothing else to do in the world. There is something more piteous almost than soapless poverty in this application of feminine incapacity to Literature.
I can't be very sorry that Nelly should have measles now. For I remember how very ill I was with the disease, when I was several years older than she is, and I suppose the older one is, the more one suffers from those inevitable things.
Give my love to Mrs. John Cash, and tell her I shall rejoice in her joy when she has got safely through the terrible hour.
We saw such a fine photograph of Livingstone the other day -- just what one would expect him to be. It is a thousand pities, there is that hideous one at the beginning of his book. 1096 And beside it we saw a portrait of Bulwer! Fancy the contrast. Bulwer looks more of a sham even than his novels. Love to all,
From thine always,
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 2 March 1858, 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/94094