910. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 235–238.
[London]
Feb. 10th 1842
Thank you my beloved friend, for the sight of Dryden’s interesting letter & for your own of more price. Your letters are angels to me!—messengers of all sorts of good & pleasantness—& by so much better than angels as they come oftener, with no[t] far between visits. How kind, how kind, it is in you to write to me so often! That is my reflection fifty times over, to my expression of it once!–
I had a little note from dear Mr Kenyon three days ago,—in which he says that I am not to class him with the butterflies, but that he has been tempted into an expedition to Bath or Bristol for four or five days by his three friends Messrs Landor, Crosse & Eagles. Do you know that Mr Eagles is the Sketcher of Blackwood? [1] —& that his daughter married my cousin a year since, in the midst of a family tempest? He—the sketcher—is a clever artist besides being able to write so admirably upon art,—a clergyman of the Establishment who was formerly tutor to my cousinship of two young Clarkes of Kinnersley castle. [2] A family living was thereupon given to him to hold until the younger Clarke waxed old enough to take it—and in the meantime a lady Eaglet flew away with the elder one—the ‘heir of all’. [3] Oh—it was’nt exactly an elopement!– But an obstinate engagement it was, in every sense—the seniors engaging as much in arms, as the young lady ever did or was by love!– She is’nt at all pretty they say, & she is older by some years than her adorer is, & looks still older—“forty” says Mrs Clarke .. but in a passion!– My story is quite from ex parte evidence, [4] & even by the light of that, I cannot choose but blame the violence of wrath twice as deeply as the violence of love. The senior Clarkes have a vow in Heaven [5] never to see the Helen—never—never! And knowing one of them, I do believe it will be never!– Mr Eagles has removed since the marriage to Clifton—infinitely to his advantage! For think of the pleasure of living constantly within sight & hearing of one’s enemies—nay .. praying with one’s enemies on sabbath-days (oh that such things shd be!) [6] & preaching sermons to one’s enemies, on the gospel of reconciliation!—the great object in people’s minds all the time, being to secure the cut effectual, past each other’s pews! I do not say so of Mr Eagles. It was not his object to perpetuate wrath. But the position altogether was a false & painful one.
Is your Mr Bourcicault the ‘London assurance’ Bourcicault? And being so, is he American?– Tell me the name of your story, my dearest friend—do! [7]
I want to know too, if you have any means of knowing, whether Mr Merry [8] has joined the Puseyites. It has only come into my head that it may be so—I have no other reason! Puseyism is the consummation of High-Churchism, even as Romanism is of Puseyism—& I did think .. a little .. though with every appreciation of the earnestness & truth of Mr Merry .. that there was .. a tendency to High Churchism visible in him. For my own part, if I held High-Churchism today at noon, I shd be a Puseyite by break of day, and if I were a Puseyite in the morning, the twilight wd find me at confession .. infallibly as any pope!– That is my view of the case! As to the evangelical party, though I honor them for many things & much, & recognize in the belief of my soul, more spiritual & doctrinal truth in them than in other divisions of this so-called national church, they yet do appear to me the most inconsistent body of men, I do not say in that church, but under that sun!– Oh! I can see it, I assure you, between the chimneys!—dont call me presumptuous—and it is so hot today! my thermometer trying to get up to seventy!– To go down to the evangelical people, whom I am <a>ngry with for not going out among the dissenters, [9] —& whom you are angry with for a certain narrowness of view & practice which is equally obvious & to be deprecated .. they are, I do admit (having much respect for the good & truth which are amongst them) the most inconsistent body in Christendom.
Yes—after all there is to regret—you are right! This great movement, as all movements must, will end in good. [10] The more thought & enquiry, the better for Truth. Error is the result of half-thinking: & of half-thinking, altho’ more dangerous than no thinking at all, the most timid of us can scarcely assert that it is better! Half-thinking is half-way to whole-thinking—& everybody may rightly welcome it, as long as nobody is content with it!——
Do tell me my dearest friend, how your new charge is, [11] & how you are. Forgive me for caring most how you are—& for being anxious that you shd not continue to be exposed to a state of things so wearing to body & spirit. Surely you have enough to bear, without stooping your shoulder to another burden. Therefore I think with Mr May—that if the poor girl is not very soon better, you shd let her family do their obvious duty & receive her from your hands! I quite quite understand all your reluctant kindness—but you must not sacrifice yourself my beloved friend—you must not, remember, for dear Dr Mitford’s sake! The affection being simply hysterical, there is no danger of life—& the injury to you as a witness, may in effect, be greater than to her as a sufferer. Change of scene & air may be the best remedy, besides! may it not? Do tell me that you are not wearing yourself out into tatters, in your abundant kindness, my dearest dearest friend!– What distresses do come to you, one after another—& you & your tenderness of heart, to meet all!–
I will be careful not to poison Flushie. He is growing so fine-ladyly delicate, that he expects, I believe, to be nourished upon macaroons & dews, or some such fairy dieting. For the last few days, he has eaten scarcely any animal food—wdnt touch what used to be his favorite,—beefsteak,—yesterday; but immediately upon Crow’s bringing him up from dinner to my room, participated most earnestly in my muffin & the milk which came by its side. As to the dripping—oh no! Crow says, “Flush wdnt condescend to such a thing as that’[’]—it’s quite out of the question! And if we gave him a hard biscuit, he wd take it & run away & play with it—but as to eating it, or anything else which is’nt broken up into very small pieces, Mr Flush wd eschew the barbarity altogether! His soul is above biscuits—but not more than on a level with sponge cakes. You shd see how his eyes flash & dilate, & his ears almost join & cover them, when he catches the sight of a parcel in which cakes may be, or hears the mystic word! “Cakes—cakes!” He knows the word well, as is testified by the wagging of his tail,!—which not wagging fast enough for the state of his feelings, he wags his hind legs too!– As to spirits & playfulness even to ‘joyaunce’, [12] Flush beats himself at them lately! He grows younger rather than older I do believe, as to spirits!——
My dearest friend, I shall send you the Athenæum where my papers are, whenever they come out! and <there>fore dont, on my account, put out your hand in any other direction. I must make you read my papers—that’s a necessary part of my vanity!–
In the meanwhile, not having received a proof sheet, I dont know whether I am to be exposed this week or not—probably not! God bless you. All our love–
Mine to dear Dr Mitford! Try to give me good news of both of you.
Your own attached
EBB
Address: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / Near Reading.
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 347–350.
Manuscript: Eton College Library and Wellesley College.
1. John Eagles (1783–1855) was a contributor, chiefly on art, to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine from 1831 until shortly before his death. His best contributions comprised a series of papers entitled “The Sketcher,” appearing between 1833 and 1835.
2. Eagles had been Curate of Kinnersley, but gave up the living in 1841, perhaps as a consequence of the “family tempest” arising from his daughter’s marriage to EBB’s cousin (see letter 777).
3. Cf. Love’s Labour’s Lost, I, 1, 7.
4. i.e., from one side only.
5. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, IV, 1, 228.
6. Cf. Macbeth, III, 4, 109.
7. A reference to Miss Mitford’s being invited to contribute to Boucicault’s anthology of women writers (see letter 906). His play, London Assurance, had been performed in 1841. He was Irish, not American.
8. EBB later (1843–44) corresponded with William Merry, Miss Mitford’s neighbour, on religious topics.
9. The Evangelicals were a powerful but unpopular group within the Church of England, their members seldom achieving ecclesiastical preferment. They held no special doctrines, but emphasized the vital significance of each individual’s relationship to God and were convinced of the inherent sinfulness of man and his inability to save himself, ascribing to God alone the sinner’s salvation. They were responsible for the formation of the Church Missionary Society in 1799. EBB obviously felt that they ought to have broken away from the Established Church, as had the Methodists and other dissenting bodies.
10. The reforming efforts of the Puseyites became known as the Oxford Movement (see letter 803, note 2).
11. Marianne, Miss Mitford’s new maid, who suffered from fits; EBB later urged her dismissal (see letter 908, note 12).
12. A poetical word for delight/enjoyment, coined by Spenser and first used in 1586 (OED).
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