GHL and GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, [10 August 1871]
Title
GHL and GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, [10 August 1871]
Title
GHL and GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, [10 August 1871]
Sender
George Henry Lewes (and George Eliot)
Recipient
Charles Lee Lewes
Date(s)
- 1871-08-10
Place
Shottermill
Letter Content
GHL and GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, [10 August 1871]
MS: Mrs. Carrington Ouvry. Endorsed: Aug. 10. 71. GE's part published: Paterson, pp. 157-158; the postscript about Tennyson has been added from 27 August.
Shotter Mill | Thursday.
Dearest Boy
I hope this heavenly weather is beneficial to Gertrude though I fancy it is perhaps too hot for her. Greatly as we enjoy it, it does not seem to have strengthened either of us. I have had two headaches with sickness this week, and the Mutter ails vaguely. Perhaps it is the sudden change.
The enclosed letter I think you will like to see. Keep it till our return. It is from a Scotch Lecturer who wrote first to ask what was the right pronunciation Rom&obreve;la or Romuc0u333 la. In his Lectures he called it Rom&obreve;la, and was frequently taken to task for a false quantity. The Mutter briefly replied and lo! this expression. 345 It pleased me very much to see such gratitude.
We seem to be in the way of gratitude. I have received from Russell Lowell 346 and from Mrs. Gilchrist, strange acknowledgments. They do one good.
Will you on Saturday or Sunday look in at the Priory and see if Browning's poem [Balaustion] 347 has come and if so post it to me? Also ask Grace if she will want any money or anything, as I don't want to come up unless forced. The days here are so delicious.
Mutter sends love to both ditto from Pater.
[In GE's hand.]
Dearest Boy,
Since Pater has left a blank page, I will use that and the quarter of an hour before dinner 348 in writing to you -- just a word of love and chat.
I have often thought of you sitting or rather standing in your City office on these fine days -- as you said -- and enter into the longing for more freedom. But I am composed on account of you by the reflection that happiness depends much more on "must do" than on "may do." Of the two evils it is unspeakably the less to want a little more freedom, than to have more than one knows what to do with. All that reads like very confused English now I have written it -- but here is the servant come to say dinner is ready, so you will understand the source of bad style.
Afternoons, we enjoy our quiet the more because we have escaped being miserable at Edinburgh. I am pretty well -- for me, in spite of Pater's report that I am "vaguely ailing," which sounds like a general description of life. Dear Pater has been a sad sufferer for two days but he is enjoying himself again now.
I am writing a big book and thinking that I shall never finish it. Love to Gertrude from her and your loving
Mutter.
MS: Mrs. Carrington Ouvry. Endorsed: Aug. 10. 71. GE's part published: Paterson, pp. 157-158; the postscript about Tennyson has been added from 27 August.
Shotter Mill | Thursday.
Dearest Boy
I hope this heavenly weather is beneficial to Gertrude though I fancy it is perhaps too hot for her. Greatly as we enjoy it, it does not seem to have strengthened either of us. I have had two headaches with sickness this week, and the Mutter ails vaguely. Perhaps it is the sudden change.
The enclosed letter I think you will like to see. Keep it till our return. It is from a Scotch Lecturer who wrote first to ask what was the right pronunciation Rom&obreve;la or Romuc0u333 la. In his Lectures he called it Rom&obreve;la, and was frequently taken to task for a false quantity. The Mutter briefly replied and lo! this expression. 345 It pleased me very much to see such gratitude.
We seem to be in the way of gratitude. I have received from Russell Lowell 346 and from Mrs. Gilchrist, strange acknowledgments. They do one good.
Will you on Saturday or Sunday look in at the Priory and see if Browning's poem [Balaustion] 347 has come and if so post it to me? Also ask Grace if she will want any money or anything, as I don't want to come up unless forced. The days here are so delicious.
Mutter sends love to both ditto from Pater.
[In GE's hand.]
Dearest Boy,
Since Pater has left a blank page, I will use that and the quarter of an hour before dinner 348 in writing to you -- just a word of love and chat.
I have often thought of you sitting or rather standing in your City office on these fine days -- as you said -- and enter into the longing for more freedom. But I am composed on account of you by the reflection that happiness depends much more on "must do" than on "may do." Of the two evils it is unspeakably the less to want a little more freedom, than to have more than one knows what to do with. All that reads like very confused English now I have written it -- but here is the servant come to say dinner is ready, so you will understand the source of bad style.
Afternoons, we enjoy our quiet the more because we have escaped being miserable at Edinburgh. I am pretty well -- for me, in spite of Pater's report that I am "vaguely ailing," which sounds like a general description of life. Dear Pater has been a sad sufferer for two days but he is enjoying himself again now.
I am writing a big book and thinking that I shall never finish it. Love to Gertrude from her and your loving
Mutter.
Citation
George Henry Lewes (and George Eliot), GHL and GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Shottermill, [10 August 1871], 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/94262