GHL to Charles Lee Lewes, Homburg, 8 August 1873
Title
GHL to Charles Lee Lewes, Homburg, 8 August 1873
Title
GHL to Charles Lee Lewes, Homburg, 8 August 1873
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Charles Lee Lewes
Date(s)
- 1873-08-08
Place
Homburg
Letter Content
GHL to Charles Lee Lewes, Homburg, 8 August 1873
MS: Mrs. Carrington Ouvry. Extracts published: Paterson, pp. 164-165.
No. 6 Schwedenpfal | Homburg, Hesse, | Friday, 8 August 73.
Dearest Boy
Our letters have been unfortunately directed. Yours was sent on to me from Geneva to Frankfurt, and glad we were to get its news of you and Gertrude and Blanche! The long silence made the anxious little Mutter anxious; yet we knew not where to write to you, not having heard from Hofwyl.
We stayed 18 days at Plombi'e8res and have regretted ever since that we left it. No place ever did the Mutter more good in a short time, though I was languid and out of sorts all the time owing to perpetual chills. I suppose this was mainly due to my weak state but partly also to the fact that we lived in a wooden chalet, hot in the hot weather and icy cold in the cold, and always damp. I left town with a nasty aural catarrh which has never left me but has had several relapses just as it seemed departing. One day last week the pain was dreadful and I feared not only permanent deafness but some organic injury. However, the pain has vanished and only the buzzing and slight deafness remain. The Mutter also took cold the day before we left Plombi'e8res and our week at Luxeuil -- another bath in the Vosges -- was disturbed by that.
From Luxeuil we went to Nancy -- a charming place where we should have stayed more than a day had it not been on the eve of the Prussian evacuation 824 and the Mutter's dread of crowds drove us away. From there, to Strasbourg and to Frankfurt where we stayed 5 days in order that we might attend service at the Synagogue (for Mutter's purposes).
It was terrifically hot and not interesting to us who had often been to Frankfurt. We came on here last Saturday at 7 in the morning, I having looked through the Kurlist to see that there were no acquaintances. But the first day turned up a Capt. Maxe whom I had met at Lady Amberley's, and yesterday morning Lady Castletown, 826 who spent the greater part of the day with us bringing the ill news that the Wigans also had arrived! Mrs. Eustace Smith 827 called -- and that is all we are at present likely to see. We avoid the Kursaal -- dine and lunch apart -- keep from the promenade, and trust thus to avoid every one except Lady C. whom we like too well to want to avoid. The pure air here and the gentle breeze which always blows even on the hottest days, the waters and our quiet living will I hope set us up during the next week. On Saturday next we begin our journey home but we shall take it in very easy stages and not arrive till towards the end of the month.
A line sent to us here with all family news will be very welcome. Mutter is now at her bath and I utilize the leisure to scribble this -- hitherto I have been too indolent and languid even to write my diary, usually done in two minutes, but so easily left undone.
Love to Gertrude and kisses to Blanche from
Your loving
Pater.
MS: Mrs. Carrington Ouvry. Extracts published: Paterson, pp. 164-165.
No. 6 Schwedenpfal | Homburg, Hesse, | Friday, 8 August 73.
Dearest Boy
Our letters have been unfortunately directed. Yours was sent on to me from Geneva to Frankfurt, and glad we were to get its news of you and Gertrude and Blanche! The long silence made the anxious little Mutter anxious; yet we knew not where to write to you, not having heard from Hofwyl.
We stayed 18 days at Plombi'e8res and have regretted ever since that we left it. No place ever did the Mutter more good in a short time, though I was languid and out of sorts all the time owing to perpetual chills. I suppose this was mainly due to my weak state but partly also to the fact that we lived in a wooden chalet, hot in the hot weather and icy cold in the cold, and always damp. I left town with a nasty aural catarrh which has never left me but has had several relapses just as it seemed departing. One day last week the pain was dreadful and I feared not only permanent deafness but some organic injury. However, the pain has vanished and only the buzzing and slight deafness remain. The Mutter also took cold the day before we left Plombi'e8res and our week at Luxeuil -- another bath in the Vosges -- was disturbed by that.
From Luxeuil we went to Nancy -- a charming place where we should have stayed more than a day had it not been on the eve of the Prussian evacuation 824 and the Mutter's dread of crowds drove us away. From there, to Strasbourg and to Frankfurt where we stayed 5 days in order that we might attend service at the Synagogue (for Mutter's purposes).
It was terrifically hot and not interesting to us who had often been to Frankfurt. We came on here last Saturday at 7 in the morning, I having looked through the Kurlist to see that there were no acquaintances. But the first day turned up a Capt. Maxe whom I had met at Lady Amberley's, and yesterday morning Lady Castletown, 826 who spent the greater part of the day with us bringing the ill news that the Wigans also had arrived! Mrs. Eustace Smith 827 called -- and that is all we are at present likely to see. We avoid the Kursaal -- dine and lunch apart -- keep from the promenade, and trust thus to avoid every one except Lady C. whom we like too well to want to avoid. The pure air here and the gentle breeze which always blows even on the hottest days, the waters and our quiet living will I hope set us up during the next week. On Saturday next we begin our journey home but we shall take it in very easy stages and not arrive till towards the end of the month.
A line sent to us here with all family news will be very welcome. Mutter is now at her bath and I utilize the leisure to scribble this -- hitherto I have been too indolent and languid even to write my diary, usually done in two minutes, but so easily left undone.
Love to Gertrude and kisses to Blanche from
Your loving
Pater.
Signature
Pater.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Charles Lee Lewes, Homburg, 8 August 1873, 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/94461