John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 12 October 1876
Title
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 12 October 1876
Title
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 12 October 1876
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1876-10-12
Place
St. Andrews
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 12 October 1876
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum | St. Andrews | N.B.
October 12/76.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
The very kind expressions in your letter of the 8th move and gratify me deeply. Tears came into my eyes, and I read the passage at once to my wife who was sitting beside me when I received the letter. I look upon such expressions coming from you, as the very highest compliment that a man holding the position I do could receive, and I shall keep the letter for my children as a memorial that their father was good for something in his day. You are too good about my poor letters which I always felt to be too meagre and too few but I do look back upon our correspondence with pride and pleasure. Each letter from you is a treat and last summer being pressed for your autograph I turned over a number of your letters, but in each there was a feeling or something that I could not part with or deface by cutting off the signature so my friend went without an autograph.
That one who has risen so high as you have should be the subject of idle gossip is almost inevitable. It is a thing for which the public have a depraved appetite and I say "idle" not evil as I do not think it is intentionally mischievous but why are great authors not to enjoy the privacy of common life? I do not know whether living gossips or posthumous memoir writers make me most savage. It is but little of such idle trash that I hear as no one would venture to speak to me of you with ought but praise and of that I do hear ample store.
You will have heard how Deronda is going on and I think the sales are very satisfactory and equal. The discussion about the book still goes on, especially in private company and the great point is that the book is discussed and disputed over as a reality. We had a good scene the other night. My wife said to a young friend staying with us "Have you read [Daniel]?" the familiar name of the book in this house. He stammered and said "No" and forthwith began to turn over his remembrances of the Book of Daniel. Then he turned out to have been a regular student of Deronda and forthwith an animated discussion of all the characters began. Mr. Simpson says that no one could write a review of the Book to please me unless I did it myself.
About Professor Dowden I fear that I am in fault. The strange thing is that I cannot recollect Lewes giving me the review containing the paper on your works. Did he hand it to me or send it to me? In spite of my carelessness I never almost lose anything and I am writing to Edinburgh to see if it is there. I wrote to Professor Dowden asking him to send me a specimen of what he proposed, but it was after many days that I wrote, and I was not surprised that he did not answer as he had probably gone on his holiday. 545 What you say interests me much in him and I shall now write again.
I have been suffering severely of late from irritation I suppose of the mucous membrane. There is an uncommonly good remark in Norman Macleod's Memoirs 546 about that membrane which he says he has been told "covers the whole of his interior and certainly covers all the rest of the world when there is anything the matter with it." I am now happily quite well and fit both for business and golf which had both been in abeyance for nearly a fortnight. I hope Lewes and you are well and settling down comfortably for the winter. Our season here will be winding up soon and the horrible wet weather reconciles one to the thought of Town. Still we have occasional bright days in the midst of the deluge which is so fatal to the outlying crops.
My wife sends her best regards and hoping that there are many years of pleasant correspondence before us Believe me
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum | St. Andrews | N.B.
October 12/76.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
The very kind expressions in your letter of the 8th move and gratify me deeply. Tears came into my eyes, and I read the passage at once to my wife who was sitting beside me when I received the letter. I look upon such expressions coming from you, as the very highest compliment that a man holding the position I do could receive, and I shall keep the letter for my children as a memorial that their father was good for something in his day. You are too good about my poor letters which I always felt to be too meagre and too few but I do look back upon our correspondence with pride and pleasure. Each letter from you is a treat and last summer being pressed for your autograph I turned over a number of your letters, but in each there was a feeling or something that I could not part with or deface by cutting off the signature so my friend went without an autograph.
That one who has risen so high as you have should be the subject of idle gossip is almost inevitable. It is a thing for which the public have a depraved appetite and I say "idle" not evil as I do not think it is intentionally mischievous but why are great authors not to enjoy the privacy of common life? I do not know whether living gossips or posthumous memoir writers make me most savage. It is but little of such idle trash that I hear as no one would venture to speak to me of you with ought but praise and of that I do hear ample store.
You will have heard how Deronda is going on and I think the sales are very satisfactory and equal. The discussion about the book still goes on, especially in private company and the great point is that the book is discussed and disputed over as a reality. We had a good scene the other night. My wife said to a young friend staying with us "Have you read [Daniel]?" the familiar name of the book in this house. He stammered and said "No" and forthwith began to turn over his remembrances of the Book of Daniel. Then he turned out to have been a regular student of Deronda and forthwith an animated discussion of all the characters began. Mr. Simpson says that no one could write a review of the Book to please me unless I did it myself.
About Professor Dowden I fear that I am in fault. The strange thing is that I cannot recollect Lewes giving me the review containing the paper on your works. Did he hand it to me or send it to me? In spite of my carelessness I never almost lose anything and I am writing to Edinburgh to see if it is there. I wrote to Professor Dowden asking him to send me a specimen of what he proposed, but it was after many days that I wrote, and I was not surprised that he did not answer as he had probably gone on his holiday. 545 What you say interests me much in him and I shall now write again.
I have been suffering severely of late from irritation I suppose of the mucous membrane. There is an uncommonly good remark in Norman Macleod's Memoirs 546 about that membrane which he says he has been told "covers the whole of his interior and certainly covers all the rest of the world when there is anything the matter with it." I am now happily quite well and fit both for business and golf which had both been in abeyance for nearly a fortnight. I hope Lewes and you are well and settling down comfortably for the winter. Our season here will be winding up soon and the horrible wet weather reconciles one to the thought of Town. Still we have occasional bright days in the midst of the deluge which is so fatal to the outlying crops.
My wife sends her best regards and hoping that there are many years of pleasant correspondence before us Believe me
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 12 October 1876, 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/95323