3 APRIL 1976, Page 16

Liaison

Sir: William Trevor (13 March) writes: 'Lewes was married when she [George Eliot] met him, and remained so, sharing his wife in a bohemian manner with a man called Thornton Hunt'. This, in its context, would suggest that Lewes and Hunt shared Agnes not only after Lewes met George Eliot,, but even after they began to live together. In fact, as Haight says in his biography (p. 132), Lewes `had ceased to regard her as his wife' before the birth of her second son to Hunt, 21 October 1851. Not only does this antedate the liaison with George Eliot by two years, but even the first meeting of the pair did not take place until 6 October 1851 (Haight, p. 127).

J. C. Maxwell

Balliol College, Oxford