GHL to George Smith, Biarritz, 26 January 1867
Title
GHL to George Smith, Biarritz, 26 January 1867
Title
GHL to George Smith, Biarritz, 26 January 1867
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
George Smith
Date(s)
- 1867-01-26
Place
Biarritz
Letter Content
GHL to George Smith, Biarritz, 26 January 1867
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Biarritz, in a storm, 26 January 1867.
My dear Smith
You must not suppose that I mean to inflict on you, busy man that you are, the bore of a reply, but I know you will be glad to hear how we are going on, so I seize the occasion of the enclosed memorandum for Sharpe 736 to tell you of our doings. First as to health. After a week of this delicious solitude we were both in the most promising condition; so much so as to project a splendid extension of our Spanish journey without fear of its results. But at the end of a week of summer weather came the snow and frost -- a trifle compared with what you have had, but sufficiently severe and continuous to undo a great deal of what the fine weather had done for us. However the warmth and sunshine has returned (though last night and this morning a terrific storm has varied the soft summery weather) and our hopes have risen again.
We only stayed three days in Paris and were glad to quit its excitements, a dinner party and a breakfast at which we met Renan and other distinguished [parties] added to the Parisian strain. -- Renan by the way is not the least of an apostle -- but very amiable, and has an indescribable air of a Belgian priest crossed with a dissenting minister. The person we most admired in Paris was the duchesse de Colonna, 737 who is, we hear, a very remarkable sculptor and is assuredly a charming and distinky woman. -- We went once to the Th'e9'e2tre Lyrique but it was to see Rigoletto. I was afraid of anything but music.
We stayed a night at Orleans and three days at Bordeaux. Then to Bayonne which was a charming change and for the first time gave us a sense of being in a land of poetry and a climate which made existence pleasurable. Biarritz, where we have been the rest of the time with the exception of two days at Pau, surpasses all expectation. Indeed until the Brownings spoke of it to us we had no conception of its being so beautiful a place. The coast is wild, broad, and grand, with rocks and huge boulders torn away and flung about by the stormy sea which is here grander than I ever saw it before -- the waves have such a sweep and the surf is so heavy. To the south runs the varied line of the Pyrenees which lift their snowy peaks into the clearest of skies, and show their bulk purple in the most glorious of sunsets. Had it not been for the sudden change in temperature I should doubtless have been quite restored by this time.
We start tomorrow for Spain. Our first resting place will be St. Sebastian; thence to Saragossa, Lerida, and Barcelona -- and there we shall decide whether or not we are to execute our tempting project.
The P.M.G. has been a great delight when it has come -- but about one paper in three reaches us, from some cause or other. I hope Spanish p.o's will be more regular.
Mrs. Lewes declares her intention of adding a postscript, so I will say goodbye and leave the stage to her. Kind regards to Greenwood. 738
Yours ever
G. H. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland.
Biarritz, in a storm, 26 January 1867.
My dear Smith
You must not suppose that I mean to inflict on you, busy man that you are, the bore of a reply, but I know you will be glad to hear how we are going on, so I seize the occasion of the enclosed memorandum for Sharpe 736 to tell you of our doings. First as to health. After a week of this delicious solitude we were both in the most promising condition; so much so as to project a splendid extension of our Spanish journey without fear of its results. But at the end of a week of summer weather came the snow and frost -- a trifle compared with what you have had, but sufficiently severe and continuous to undo a great deal of what the fine weather had done for us. However the warmth and sunshine has returned (though last night and this morning a terrific storm has varied the soft summery weather) and our hopes have risen again.
We only stayed three days in Paris and were glad to quit its excitements, a dinner party and a breakfast at which we met Renan and other distinguished [parties] added to the Parisian strain. -- Renan by the way is not the least of an apostle -- but very amiable, and has an indescribable air of a Belgian priest crossed with a dissenting minister. The person we most admired in Paris was the duchesse de Colonna, 737 who is, we hear, a very remarkable sculptor and is assuredly a charming and distinky woman. -- We went once to the Th'e9'e2tre Lyrique but it was to see Rigoletto. I was afraid of anything but music.
We stayed a night at Orleans and three days at Bordeaux. Then to Bayonne which was a charming change and for the first time gave us a sense of being in a land of poetry and a climate which made existence pleasurable. Biarritz, where we have been the rest of the time with the exception of two days at Pau, surpasses all expectation. Indeed until the Brownings spoke of it to us we had no conception of its being so beautiful a place. The coast is wild, broad, and grand, with rocks and huge boulders torn away and flung about by the stormy sea which is here grander than I ever saw it before -- the waves have such a sweep and the surf is so heavy. To the south runs the varied line of the Pyrenees which lift their snowy peaks into the clearest of skies, and show their bulk purple in the most glorious of sunsets. Had it not been for the sudden change in temperature I should doubtless have been quite restored by this time.
We start tomorrow for Spain. Our first resting place will be St. Sebastian; thence to Saragossa, Lerida, and Barcelona -- and there we shall decide whether or not we are to execute our tempting project.
The P.M.G. has been a great delight when it has come -- but about one paper in three reaches us, from some cause or other. I hope Spanish p.o's will be more regular.
Mrs. Lewes declares her intention of adding a postscript, so I will say goodbye and leave the stage to her. Kind regards to Greenwood. 738
Yours ever
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to George Smith, Biarritz, 26 January 1867, 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/94541