GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Tenby, 29 June 1856
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Tenby, 29 June 1856
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Tenby, 29 June 1856
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1856-06-29
Place
Tenby
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Tenby, 29 June 1856
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 408-410.
Bridge Street | Tenby | June 29. 56.
Dear Sara
Good, sweet thing for writing to me! My first impulse was to answer your letter forthwith, but on second thoughts it seemed wiser to wait until our arrival here, that you might know our address.
Yes, indeed; I do remember old Tenby days, and had set my heart on being in the very same house again. 717 We saw a ticket in the window and turned in, but alas! it had just been let. It is immensely smartened up, like the place generally, since those old times, and is proportionately less desirable for quiet people who have no flounces and do not subscribe to new churches. It looks -- I mean Tenby looks insignificant in picturesqueness after Ilfracombe, but the two objects that drew us hither, zoology and health, will flourish none the worse for the absence of tall precipices and many tinted rocks. The air is delicious -- soft but not sultry, and the sands and bathing such as are to be found nowhere else. St. Catherine's Rock with its caverns is our paradise. We go there with baskets, hammers and chisels, and jars and phials, and come home laden with spoils. Then there is Monkstone Point, where we mean to go and explore pools and crevices, and Caldy Island, where Gosse 718 tells us there are treasures to be found. Altogether, we are contented to have been driven away from Ilfracombe by the cold wind, since a new place is new experience, and Mr. Lewes has never been here before.
To me there is the additional pleasure -- half melancholy -- of recalling all the old impressions and comparing them with the new. I think of all dear Mr. Hennell's jokes -- the delicious one about Mr. Bray's nearly committed blunder of pouring the beer instead of the cream over his tart -- "Lor! how Cara would have caught it!", and his notion of economising by eating a double quantity of fowls "because they were so cheap." We went into the market yesterday, but the Fish-women with whom Mr. Bray was an especial favorite, are no longer there. The Fish market is moved to a subterranean place near the quay. Everywhere new houses and smarter shops -- everywhere signs that we are twelve years (or more?) older than when we all landed from the Bristol Packet, feeling rather naus'e9abondes, and thinking the town looked rather dingy. We arrived by coach from the Narberth Road station, but we got down at the White Lion, which I recognized, with its low windows and view of the quay. How nice it would be if some packet would land you all -- Mr. Bray and Cara, you and Nelly -- once more! I suppose Frank 719 too is of your family, though you have not mentioned him for a long while.
I understand your wish to have as much of Rosehill as possible this year, and I am so glad that you will associate a visit from Herbert Spencer with this last summer. I suppose he is with you now. 720 If so, give him my very evil regards, and tell him that because he has not written to us, we will diligently not tell him a great many things he would have liked to know. We have a project of going into St. Catherine's caverns with lanterns some night when the tide is low about 11, for the sake of seeing the zoophytes preparing for their midnight revels. The Actiniae, like other belles, put on their best faces on such occasions.
Two things we have lost by leaving Ilfracombe for which we have no compensation -- the little zoological curate, Mr. Tugwell, who is really one of the best specimens of the clergyman species I have seen, and the pleasure of having Miss Barbara Smith there for a week sketching the rocks and putting our love of them into the tangible form of a picture. 721 We are looking out now for Mr. Pigott in his yacht, and his amiable face 722 will make an agreeable variety on the sands.
Write me word how you enjoy your visit to Ravensbourne, 723 and in general, bear in mind that any little scrap of your writing is welcome.
I thought "Walden" (you mean "Life in the Woods" don't you?) a charming book, from its freshness and sincerity, as well as for its bits of description. 724 It is pleasant to think that Harriet Martineau can make so much of her last days. Her energy and her habit of useful work are admirable. It was a nice picture for me, too, to think of your soothing George Combe with music. 725 Best love to all.
Ever your affectionate
Marian.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 408-410.
Bridge Street | Tenby | June 29. 56.
Dear Sara
Good, sweet thing for writing to me! My first impulse was to answer your letter forthwith, but on second thoughts it seemed wiser to wait until our arrival here, that you might know our address.
Yes, indeed; I do remember old Tenby days, and had set my heart on being in the very same house again. 717 We saw a ticket in the window and turned in, but alas! it had just been let. It is immensely smartened up, like the place generally, since those old times, and is proportionately less desirable for quiet people who have no flounces and do not subscribe to new churches. It looks -- I mean Tenby looks insignificant in picturesqueness after Ilfracombe, but the two objects that drew us hither, zoology and health, will flourish none the worse for the absence of tall precipices and many tinted rocks. The air is delicious -- soft but not sultry, and the sands and bathing such as are to be found nowhere else. St. Catherine's Rock with its caverns is our paradise. We go there with baskets, hammers and chisels, and jars and phials, and come home laden with spoils. Then there is Monkstone Point, where we mean to go and explore pools and crevices, and Caldy Island, where Gosse 718 tells us there are treasures to be found. Altogether, we are contented to have been driven away from Ilfracombe by the cold wind, since a new place is new experience, and Mr. Lewes has never been here before.
To me there is the additional pleasure -- half melancholy -- of recalling all the old impressions and comparing them with the new. I think of all dear Mr. Hennell's jokes -- the delicious one about Mr. Bray's nearly committed blunder of pouring the beer instead of the cream over his tart -- "Lor! how Cara would have caught it!", and his notion of economising by eating a double quantity of fowls "because they were so cheap." We went into the market yesterday, but the Fish-women with whom Mr. Bray was an especial favorite, are no longer there. The Fish market is moved to a subterranean place near the quay. Everywhere new houses and smarter shops -- everywhere signs that we are twelve years (or more?) older than when we all landed from the Bristol Packet, feeling rather naus'e9abondes, and thinking the town looked rather dingy. We arrived by coach from the Narberth Road station, but we got down at the White Lion, which I recognized, with its low windows and view of the quay. How nice it would be if some packet would land you all -- Mr. Bray and Cara, you and Nelly -- once more! I suppose Frank 719 too is of your family, though you have not mentioned him for a long while.
I understand your wish to have as much of Rosehill as possible this year, and I am so glad that you will associate a visit from Herbert Spencer with this last summer. I suppose he is with you now. 720 If so, give him my very evil regards, and tell him that because he has not written to us, we will diligently not tell him a great many things he would have liked to know. We have a project of going into St. Catherine's caverns with lanterns some night when the tide is low about 11, for the sake of seeing the zoophytes preparing for their midnight revels. The Actiniae, like other belles, put on their best faces on such occasions.
Two things we have lost by leaving Ilfracombe for which we have no compensation -- the little zoological curate, Mr. Tugwell, who is really one of the best specimens of the clergyman species I have seen, and the pleasure of having Miss Barbara Smith there for a week sketching the rocks and putting our love of them into the tangible form of a picture. 721 We are looking out now for Mr. Pigott in his yacht, and his amiable face 722 will make an agreeable variety on the sands.
Write me word how you enjoy your visit to Ravensbourne, 723 and in general, bear in mind that any little scrap of your writing is welcome.
I thought "Walden" (you mean "Life in the Woods" don't you?) a charming book, from its freshness and sincerity, as well as for its bits of description. 724 It is pleasant to think that Harriet Martineau can make so much of her last days. Her energy and her habit of useful work are admirable. It was a nice picture for me, too, to think of your soothing George Combe with music. 725 Best love to all.
Ever your affectionate
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Tenby, 29 June 1856, 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/94117