The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-05-07
WAkEMAN'S TRAVELS.
Griff, tho Farm Homo OF Litera-
lures Foremost Woman.
GEORGE ELIQ1'S GlRLHOOD HOME.
Tho Region George Eliot's Land" MS
we'll us shnkcspeare's Country.
Extraordinary Relatives and Many
Childhood Friends Still Living.
IcorYmonr, iSo2. ny rpoAnl. wAKruAv.l

II is not long ago tllAt one oil tie MODEST
OF American women said to me:
t"lf there Is any earthly influence that
might repress the presumption, impu.
denco and lmmodesty OF that rapidly In.
creasing class Of my countrywomen who
seem possessed OF mad craze TO unsex
themselves for the pitiable reward Of
temporary public recognition or motor
ioty, 1t would be genuine study OF tho
genius OF George Eliot, coupled with q
pilgrimage to tho localities upon which
her everyday life as maid and a woman
left tho grand impress Of their personal
worth.
This much OF an obiect.lesson would
DO learned-if such women are capable
OF receiving grave and serious instruc.
tion-Gs would also result from like
study OF the genius Of Harriet Marti-
neau, the Cary sisters. Rosa Bonheur,
Dinah Mulock .Craik, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Charlotte Bronte, and all
the Immortals: That whore genius has
been tho original gift Of woman, In the
precise degree that has been eventually
achieved and accorded, has that woman
shrunk from offensive exhibitions OF
her own personality and importance.
Another as impressive truth would have
logical revealment. Where any woman
charges upon the public with demands
for its attention and homage, IN tho
same degree OF her insistant clamor will
it, in time, be withheld and prove her
doom to merited oblivion"
However this may be, remembering
George Elliot's work, which, in its hold
upon the intellect and heart OF all En-.
glish speaking people, is instinctively
grouped with that OF Scott and Shake.
speare, and her grand. strong, plain
face, which you instinctively group with
those OF Dante, Bronto, Sayonarola and
List, you come TO the pleasant region
where she grew TO her full! stature OF
person and genius with something akin
tothe same indefinable feeling of dream.
full 'unrcality, touched with reverence
and almost hushed with awe, as when
you tread the quaint streets OF old STRAIT
ford, close to the shrine Of the immortal
bard of Avon.
GEORGE EL1or's LAND" w.
Indeed the Shakespeare country is
truly George Eliot's land. Stratford,
Warwick, bennington, Coventry and
Nuneaton allie in direct line from
the southwest to the northeast bound
aries OF Warwickshire. One of the finest
highways in England, elm-shaded for
more than half its length, connects
them all. ;Eliot's Warwickshiro was
the Arden of Shakespeare. THE same
Avon smiled back from its murmuring
waters upon them both. The same bill
lowy hills. gentle slopes and sunny val
leys gavo both their inspiration and
imagery. Their hearts warmed to the
same peasantry. In the subtle delinea-
ton OF these, Eliot was to the early Vic.
toriau age, ut least in a degree, what
Shakespeare was to the early Eliza.
bethan. And Shakespeare's birthplace
and grave at Stratford, arc not thirty
miles distan. from George Elot's girl.
hood home.
1t lies on, the olden highway between
Coventry and Nuneaton. These towns
are but nine miles apart. Bedworth,
sleepy old pit village, is midway be.
tween; and about halt way from Bed
worth to Nuneaton, near Atbury Hall,
the seat of@the Newdigates, is Griff,
fine old English farm homo and stead
ing, belonging to the Great Arbnry cs-
tates now as when George Eliot's
MARY Ann EransO baby eyes first
looked upon the great frs, cedars, elms
and lines which shade this old and
ample stone structure. In this house
of many gables and tiny-pancd bow
windows George Eliot lived from March,
1920, when she was babe but four
months old, until March, 1871, when
her family removed from Grill to Foles-
hill, Coventry, period of twenty-one
years. These were tho twenty.one
years in which were nurtured and
matured all those bodily, heart and
mental forces which gave her the high
est place in literature OF any woman
that ever lived.
Her father, Rober. Evans, was tenant
OF Mr.. Francis Newdigate, at Kirk Hal
len, Derbyshire On the death OF old
Sir Roger Newdigate the Arbury estate
Ill Warwickshire camo to Francis Newdi-
gate for life, and Robert Evans accom-
panied him to Arbury as his tenant and
agent By first wife there had been
two children. Their mother died in
1900. Theirfather married Christiana
Pearson in 1918. Three children were
born TO this union-Christiana in 1914,
Isaac, in 1915, and Mary Ann George
Elliott, in 1919, ut the ''south Farm, !"
Arbury, which had been given the father
temporary. Cross, in his biography OF
George Eliot, transcribes from an old
diary OF the father where it had been
penned in his own handwriting:
"Nov. %, 1sl9.-Mary Ann Evans wal
born at Arbury Farm (this was South
Farm, Arbury) at five o'clock thismorn-
ing"
1t was St. Cecilia's day. 1t is also OF
record that the child was baptized in
the ancient church OF Chilvers Cotton,
which rears its crumbling Norman
tower over landscape that will strong
ly remind you Of tho noors about Ia
worth, where the sisters Bronte strug-
gled nearly NIL their lives in pathetic
silence. This quaint old pile midway
between the GriT farmhouse and Nun
eaton, and the half dozen houses under
its eavesais the Shepporton Of Amos
Barton"
- TIE FAMILY.
The three Evans children, then, most
and longest associated with Griff were
tho reborn upon the Aubury estates
Christiana married surgeon named
= Clark, Of, .Meriden, Warwickshire and
died in 1859. George Eliot died in 1880
Isaac, .as l learned after arrival here,
who had remained at Gritf and sue