GHL to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lee Lewes, Ryde, 25 December 1870
Title
GHL to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lee Lewes, Ryde, 25 December 1870
Title
GHL to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lee Lewes, Ryde, 25 December 1870
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lee Lewes
Date(s)
- 1870-12-25
Place
Ryde
Letter Content
GHL to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lee Lewes, Ryde, 25 December 1870
MS: Mrs. Carrington Ouvry. Hitherto unpublished.
Swanmore Parsonage | Ryde | Christmas Day 1870.
Dearest Children
A merry Christmas to you and a happier year! Surely this bright sky and bracing air is giving Gertrude her needed strength? It is doing wonders for the dilapidated Pater who was much out of sorts when he left.
There is no one here except Mad. Bodichon and Miss Edwards 243 so our life is as placid as need be. We breakfast alone, have each a room to do a little work in in the mornings, but are more often seduced into country rambles. At lunch we all meet, and the rest of the day is passed agreeably together. Yesterday we had the Mummers; and ritualistic High Mass in the Church at 12 at night, to which Mad. Bodichon went -- we retiring to the less ecclesiastical Bed. But the Mutter has gone to service this morning and I stay in to scribble this. We shall be home again probably on Wednesday and hope to find Gertrude flourishing. I wonder whether you will take advantage of your three days' holiday to take her anywhere?
This parsonage is so intensely ritualistic that there is even a scourge hanging up in the priest's study. I took it down yesterday and arranged the following surprise with the parlour maid. When the soup was removed I told Barbara that I had taken the liberty of ordering a new dish -- one only met with at recherch'e9 tables. They were all agog to know what it could be. Oysters? Game? Some French entremet? Ann brought in the huge dish and set it before Barbara, then solemnly removed the cover and revealed the scourge lying in a most uncanny aspect -- the thongs which had been pressed inwards by the cover gave a slight outward movement which startled Barbara as if a live eel or so were there. Immense laughter!
Give our love to Margaret. We shall come up to Hampstead on our return.
Ever your loving
Pater.
MS: Mrs. Carrington Ouvry. Hitherto unpublished.
Swanmore Parsonage | Ryde | Christmas Day 1870.
Dearest Children
A merry Christmas to you and a happier year! Surely this bright sky and bracing air is giving Gertrude her needed strength? It is doing wonders for the dilapidated Pater who was much out of sorts when he left.
There is no one here except Mad. Bodichon and Miss Edwards 243 so our life is as placid as need be. We breakfast alone, have each a room to do a little work in in the mornings, but are more often seduced into country rambles. At lunch we all meet, and the rest of the day is passed agreeably together. Yesterday we had the Mummers; and ritualistic High Mass in the Church at 12 at night, to which Mad. Bodichon went -- we retiring to the less ecclesiastical Bed. But the Mutter has gone to service this morning and I stay in to scribble this. We shall be home again probably on Wednesday and hope to find Gertrude flourishing. I wonder whether you will take advantage of your three days' holiday to take her anywhere?
This parsonage is so intensely ritualistic that there is even a scourge hanging up in the priest's study. I took it down yesterday and arranged the following surprise with the parlour maid. When the soup was removed I told Barbara that I had taken the liberty of ordering a new dish -- one only met with at recherch'e9 tables. They were all agog to know what it could be. Oysters? Game? Some French entremet? Ann brought in the huge dish and set it before Barbara, then solemnly removed the cover and revealed the scourge lying in a most uncanny aspect -- the thongs which had been pressed inwards by the cover gave a slight outward movement which startled Barbara as if a live eel or so were there. Immense laughter!
Give our love to Margaret. We shall come up to Hampstead on our return.
Ever your loving
Pater.
Signature
Pater.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lee Lewes, Ryde, 25 December 1870, 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/94920