GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, [31 January 1878]
Title
GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, [31 January 1878]
Title
GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, [31 January 1878]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1878-01-31
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, [31 January 1878]
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Thursday.
Dear Bar
Miss Marks, who gave us a more cheering account of you than Miss Greatorex, said you liked getting letters, so I resolved to send you all the gossip I could scrape together, but was too weary after work to hold a pen, and forgot it in the afternoon.
First of Madonna -- she has fallen back into one of her old states of malaise and headache, but without any recurrence of her lumbar pains. She looks pale and pinched, and I wish our country house were ready for us that we might have a few days holiday. The builders are still there, for we are adding a coachman's cottage -- and the decoration will soon begin.
Mrs. Cross who has been dangerously ill is getting better again, and Henrietta Rintoul is off to the Isle of Wight for a holiday. She came on Sunday bringing her German friend, Mr. Friedmann -- did you ever see him? -- a very accomplished and interesting man.
The Cliffords were here at the same time 20 and he told this good story: When the Bible was to be translated into Zulu there was a difficulty which long seemed insurmountable, how to find an equivalent for God. At last one was adopted. But afterwards a more intelligent native explained that the word meant -- "meat in a state of decomposition." This was mentioned one night at the Saville Club, when a visitor raising his glass to his eye said: "Ah! no doubt a translation of the Most High!"
Du Maurier told us of a General X who stuttered but was imperturbable. One day he asked the lady he had taken down to dinner, "Who is that p-p-p-purple faced p-p-party?" "That purple faced party, sir, is my husband." "Your husband? I'm so g-g-glad, now you c-c-can tell me whether he is the same c-c-color all over." 21
The other day Dr. Richardson asked Sir J. Paget, Huxley, and yours truly to come and see a patient from whom a Glasgow surgeon had removed the whole of the larynx, and this he had supplied by an artificial larynx with which the man could speak. 22 It was most interesting. He spoke in a monotone but with perfect distinctness. What will science do next?
The other day we took Roland Stewart to see a pantomime, he never having seen one. It was a wild delight to him and a dreariness to us. If science is advancing theatres are not -- above all the taste of audiences is not. 23 Apropos of science read Huxley on Harvey in the new Fortnightly 24 -- especially the close about vivisection.
We are reading Lecky's new book with great interest. I know of nothing else to recommend, unless perhaps Cherbuliez: "Samuel Brohl & Cie" 25 which is very gay. Marian sends her dear love.
Ever yours
G. H. Lewes.
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Thursday.
Dear Bar
Miss Marks, who gave us a more cheering account of you than Miss Greatorex, said you liked getting letters, so I resolved to send you all the gossip I could scrape together, but was too weary after work to hold a pen, and forgot it in the afternoon.
First of Madonna -- she has fallen back into one of her old states of malaise and headache, but without any recurrence of her lumbar pains. She looks pale and pinched, and I wish our country house were ready for us that we might have a few days holiday. The builders are still there, for we are adding a coachman's cottage -- and the decoration will soon begin.
Mrs. Cross who has been dangerously ill is getting better again, and Henrietta Rintoul is off to the Isle of Wight for a holiday. She came on Sunday bringing her German friend, Mr. Friedmann -- did you ever see him? -- a very accomplished and interesting man.
The Cliffords were here at the same time 20 and he told this good story: When the Bible was to be translated into Zulu there was a difficulty which long seemed insurmountable, how to find an equivalent for God. At last one was adopted. But afterwards a more intelligent native explained that the word meant -- "meat in a state of decomposition." This was mentioned one night at the Saville Club, when a visitor raising his glass to his eye said: "Ah! no doubt a translation of the Most High!"
Du Maurier told us of a General X who stuttered but was imperturbable. One day he asked the lady he had taken down to dinner, "Who is that p-p-p-purple faced p-p-party?" "That purple faced party, sir, is my husband." "Your husband? I'm so g-g-glad, now you c-c-can tell me whether he is the same c-c-color all over." 21
The other day Dr. Richardson asked Sir J. Paget, Huxley, and yours truly to come and see a patient from whom a Glasgow surgeon had removed the whole of the larynx, and this he had supplied by an artificial larynx with which the man could speak. 22 It was most interesting. He spoke in a monotone but with perfect distinctness. What will science do next?
The other day we took Roland Stewart to see a pantomime, he never having seen one. It was a wild delight to him and a dreariness to us. If science is advancing theatres are not -- above all the taste of audiences is not. 23 Apropos of science read Huxley on Harvey in the new Fortnightly 24 -- especially the close about vivisection.
We are reading Lecky's new book with great interest. I know of nothing else to recommend, unless perhaps Cherbuliez: "Samuel Brohl & Cie" 25 which is very gay. Marian sends her dear love.
Ever yours
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, [31 January 1878], 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/94904