John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 15 July 1879
Title
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 15 July 1879
Title
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 15 July 1879
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1879-07-15
Place
St. Andrews
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 15 July 1879
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letter Book. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum St. Andrews | July 15th 1879.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
I have not heard from you for some time and since I came here I think I have been remiss in writing to you. On arrival here I was greeted by a charming letter from you but I wish it had given a more satisfactory account of your health. I do hope you can now tell of real improvement and freedom from pain.
For some time when I first came here I did not know how the change was going to answer. I got better and worse in a very unsatisfactory way and could neither eat nor sleep, but about a week ago I began fairly to mend and now sleep without opiates or any of the poisonous decoctions on which I was nourished for the previous two months. I am thankful to say I really feel getting well and if the weather would only permit I expect to be walking about stoutly soon.
The splendid success of Theophrastus has been a most satisfactory thing to watch. There are between three and four hundred I think on hand and probably this may prove the last edition we should run at present price, but what a run it has been. How he would have enjoyed it.
We have had two and a half days of continuous heavy rain which have knocked up the last hopes of the Harvest in the Lowlands. I never saw anything like the wind and cold at this season. The day before yesterday looking out of drawing room window my wife and I simultaneously remarked, Why this is exactly the sort of afternoon that reconciles us to going back to town in November.
I have been thinking of the remark you made about circumstances having made writers and we have quite a little collection of such tales in the Magazine. I had a letter to-day from Mrs. Thrupp the wife of Captain Thrupp who told the tale of the wrecking of his ship the Megaera telling that her husband was made a Queen's A.D.C. so the "Poor old Megaera had borne fruit at last." 296 Thrupp proved a capital fellow and as mad about Golf as myself.
The Zulu war is emphatically a useless and a miserable business. An American lady whom we know in Rome says my daughter is reported in America to be the author in Blackwood of the paper on the
Zulu War. You have seen Mary and will be amused like me with the extreme congeniality and probability of the task. I hope Wolseley will finish it soon and thoroughly. By the way I think Wolseley's first serious piece of writing was the account in the Magazine of his own Great Red River expedition. The Spectator reviewing the Magazine said he showed great ignorance of the subject, compared with some friend of theirs, I suppose, who had published a volume on the subject. It was a pity I could not reveal the authorship.
Hoping soon to have good accounts of you and with best remembrances from my wife and daughter, I am
always yours truly
(signed) John Blackwood.
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letter Book. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum St. Andrews | July 15th 1879.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
I have not heard from you for some time and since I came here I think I have been remiss in writing to you. On arrival here I was greeted by a charming letter from you but I wish it had given a more satisfactory account of your health. I do hope you can now tell of real improvement and freedom from pain.
For some time when I first came here I did not know how the change was going to answer. I got better and worse in a very unsatisfactory way and could neither eat nor sleep, but about a week ago I began fairly to mend and now sleep without opiates or any of the poisonous decoctions on which I was nourished for the previous two months. I am thankful to say I really feel getting well and if the weather would only permit I expect to be walking about stoutly soon.
The splendid success of Theophrastus has been a most satisfactory thing to watch. There are between three and four hundred I think on hand and probably this may prove the last edition we should run at present price, but what a run it has been. How he would have enjoyed it.
We have had two and a half days of continuous heavy rain which have knocked up the last hopes of the Harvest in the Lowlands. I never saw anything like the wind and cold at this season. The day before yesterday looking out of drawing room window my wife and I simultaneously remarked, Why this is exactly the sort of afternoon that reconciles us to going back to town in November.
I have been thinking of the remark you made about circumstances having made writers and we have quite a little collection of such tales in the Magazine. I had a letter to-day from Mrs. Thrupp the wife of Captain Thrupp who told the tale of the wrecking of his ship the Megaera telling that her husband was made a Queen's A.D.C. so the "Poor old Megaera had borne fruit at last." 296 Thrupp proved a capital fellow and as mad about Golf as myself.
The Zulu war is emphatically a useless and a miserable business. An American lady whom we know in Rome says my daughter is reported in America to be the author in Blackwood of the paper on the
Zulu War. You have seen Mary and will be amused like me with the extreme congeniality and probability of the task. I hope Wolseley will finish it soon and thoroughly. By the way I think Wolseley's first serious piece of writing was the account in the Magazine of his own Great Red River expedition. The Spectator reviewing the Magazine said he showed great ignorance of the subject, compared with some friend of theirs, I suppose, who had published a volume on the subject. It was a pity I could not reveal the authorship.
Hoping soon to have good accounts of you and with best remembrances from my wife and daughter, I am
always yours truly
(signed) John Blackwood.
Signature
(signed) John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, St. Andrews, 15 July 1879, 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/95324