John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 7 November 1867
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 7 November 1867
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 7 November 1867
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1867-11-07
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 7 November 1867
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extract published: John Blackwood, p. 377.
Edinburgh November 7/67.
My Dear Madam
It gave me very great pleasure to receive your letter and it was most ungrateful of me not to write at once to thank you. I am much delighted with what you say of the Memoir of Aytoun and of the man him-self. For twenty years we were bosom friends and companions, and his death was the break up of as joyous a fellowship as ever existed between two men much engaged in business together. I feel what you say the more as I have been intensely disgusted at the tone of the London Press in regard to Aytoun. I am tolerably well acquainted with the London Press and there is not among them any who for poetry, humour, and real power of argumentative writing can be compared with Aytoun, yet they speak of the dead man with the most lordly contempt. However Lewes and you know the fellows, so I need not say more about them.
In spite of your misgivings I feel very confident that Fidalma is getting on well. I long to see more of her. 678 What would you say to trying some of the drama in type to see how it looked? At present I have no intention of being in London this winter, but there is no saying. I ought to be more in London, but when I am there I find it very difficult to do anything. Driving about in Hansoms cuts the day to pieces, and when I get back to my rooms callers pour in, and by the evening I am only fit for a cigar with the General. To hear you read Fidalma would be a strong inducement to run up to Town, but I think it would not be a bad plan for you to try some of it in type.
Adam Bede goes on steadily but not brilliantly. I must confess to heavy disappointment at the non success of the works as a serial, and I cannot understand it. Next to predicting who will win the Derby I think foretelling how many of a book will sell is about the most difficult problem going.
I had a call today from Theodore Martin and gratified him by reading what you said of the Memoir of Aytoun. While he was with me another friend of Lewes' William Smith turned up. Smith is looking strong for him, and was very glad to hear that Lewes was better.
I agree with you in thinking that Trollope giving up his official situation is a doubtful step, but I hope he has a good retiring allowance. Of shilling Magazines there seems no end. They cannot answer and it is difficult to see how many of them continue to exist.
Disraeli's visit here was a great success. His address to the Working Men was the best thing I ever heard him do. 679 It was thoroughly well done. My printers were all there and were highly delighted.
Do you never think of writing any miscellaneous papers for the Magazine? It strikes me that you could do a first rate address to the Working Men on their new responsibilities. It might be signed Felix Holt. With best regards to Lewes, Believe me
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
Write to me whenever you have leisure.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extract published: John Blackwood, p. 377.
Edinburgh November 7/67.
My Dear Madam
It gave me very great pleasure to receive your letter and it was most ungrateful of me not to write at once to thank you. I am much delighted with what you say of the Memoir of Aytoun and of the man him-self. For twenty years we were bosom friends and companions, and his death was the break up of as joyous a fellowship as ever existed between two men much engaged in business together. I feel what you say the more as I have been intensely disgusted at the tone of the London Press in regard to Aytoun. I am tolerably well acquainted with the London Press and there is not among them any who for poetry, humour, and real power of argumentative writing can be compared with Aytoun, yet they speak of the dead man with the most lordly contempt. However Lewes and you know the fellows, so I need not say more about them.
In spite of your misgivings I feel very confident that Fidalma is getting on well. I long to see more of her. 678 What would you say to trying some of the drama in type to see how it looked? At present I have no intention of being in London this winter, but there is no saying. I ought to be more in London, but when I am there I find it very difficult to do anything. Driving about in Hansoms cuts the day to pieces, and when I get back to my rooms callers pour in, and by the evening I am only fit for a cigar with the General. To hear you read Fidalma would be a strong inducement to run up to Town, but I think it would not be a bad plan for you to try some of it in type.
Adam Bede goes on steadily but not brilliantly. I must confess to heavy disappointment at the non success of the works as a serial, and I cannot understand it. Next to predicting who will win the Derby I think foretelling how many of a book will sell is about the most difficult problem going.
I had a call today from Theodore Martin and gratified him by reading what you said of the Memoir of Aytoun. While he was with me another friend of Lewes' William Smith turned up. Smith is looking strong for him, and was very glad to hear that Lewes was better.
I agree with you in thinking that Trollope giving up his official situation is a doubtful step, but I hope he has a good retiring allowance. Of shilling Magazines there seems no end. They cannot answer and it is difficult to see how many of them continue to exist.
Disraeli's visit here was a great success. His address to the Working Men was the best thing I ever heard him do. 679 It was thoroughly well done. My printers were all there and were highly delighted.
Do you never think of writing any miscellaneous papers for the Magazine? It strikes me that you could do a first rate address to the Working Men on their new responsibilities. It might be signed Felix Holt. With best regards to Lewes, Believe me
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
Write to me whenever you have leisure.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 7 November 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/95292