one of her letters she used these words:

It is interesting, I think, to know whether a writer was born in a
central or border district--a condition which always has a strongly
determining influence. I was born in Warwickshire, but certain family
traditions connected with more northerly districts made these districts
a region of poetry to me in my early childhood. I was brought up in the
Church of England, and have never joined any other religious society,
but I have had close acquaintance with many Dissenters of various
sects, from Calvinistic Anabaptists to Unitarians.

The influence of the surroundings of childhood upon character she has more
than once touched upon in her books. In the second chapter of _Theophrastus
Such_, she says,--

I cherish my childish loves--the memory of that warm little nest where
my affections were fledged.

In the same essay she says,--

Our Midland plains have never lost their familiar expression and
conservative spirit for me.

In _Daniel Deronda_ she most tenderly expresses the same deep conviction
concerning the soul's need of anchorage in some familiar and inspiring
scene, with which the memories of childhood may be delightfully associated.
Her own fond recollections lent force to whatever philosophical
significance such a theory may have had for her.

A human life should be well rooted in some spot of a native land, where