TEL. 6 {NORTON-IN-HALES.
STATION}

BRAND HALL,
MARKET DRAYTON,
SHROPSHIRE.

April 15, 1942.

Dear Miss Druce:

I am sending you the letter which I have
received from Professor Gordon Haight of Yale University,
and I shall be much obliged if you will kindly return it
to me in the enclosed envelope. The letter is in the envelope.

I should be indeed grateful, if you will
allow me to publish the letters of George Eliot to my
mother. They were written for the most part when the
great writer was unknown, or rather, I ought to say, only
known as a scholar to a comparatively small circle of
people.

My mother was nearly ten years younger, but she two became very dear friends, and though my mother did not care for Mr. Lewes, their friendship endured during the whole of George Eliot's life. Indeed my mother took my brother, who was then a child of about four and five, to lunch with her very soon after her return from Italy with Mr. Cross, and after her death Mr. Cross wrote my mother a most moving and interesting letter. If you have no objection, I should like to quote that letter also.

All through my girlhood we saw Mr. Cross
at intervals - rather long intervals, no doubt, partly be-
cause we were a great deal in France. The very last time
I saw him was at a lunch party given by Miss Maude Stanley
in Smith Square, and I remember with what intense interest
I looked at him. Many years had gone by then, and I was
already married. As I looked at him closely, I thought him
little changed from when I used to see him years before.

Perhaps I ought to have said before that I
am bringing out a book in due course which will deal with
my mother's early life and friendships. [Signature]

TEL. 6
STATION NORTON-IN-HALES.

-2-

Her first friend, who was almost like her sister,
was Barbara Leigh Smith (later Barbara Bodichon). She was
also intimate with such different people as the Rossettis,
the Brownings and Mrs. Gaskell.

Hoping you will have the kindness to accede to my
request, believe me to remain,

enc:- letter
envelope addressed.

Miss Elsie Druce,
Thornhill,
Rye,
Sussex.