1092. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 229–231.
[London]
[?18] [December 1842] [1]
<***> Mr Cary’s report of the state of things at Oxford [2] scarcely surprises me—and yet .. Carlyle’s Hero-worship to be cast out!! [3] Is it not the open confession that nobody there is a hero, or wishes to be a hero, or cares for anybody who is? I think so. As to Mr Newnam, I had heard of his precedence in action to Dr Pusey, & indeed held in my hand, a book of his containing “the full sum” [4] of Puseyism, before Dr Pusey began to fast. [5] I also know his brother who was a missionary with Mr Groves in India, [6] after thundering over the university with “first class” talents,—returned with him to England, connected himself with the Plymouth brethren, & altho’ detected by them in Arian views, triumphantly & in spite of controversy married a Plymouth sister, & settled at Bristol .. where I believe (at least I know nothing to the contrary) he continues to lecture. [7] “First-class” talents I said: I was told so—I did not guess it. I heard him preach at the schoolroom at Sidmouth, where the Plymouth Brethren (you have heard of that sect) were in the habit of preaching, & where I occasionally went to hear them. His preaching was so very simple, that it seemed to me on the verge of being silly. One word faltered after another—words of two syllables—& sentences of two words—brevity without force—the very pith of commonplace. But he spoke the truth: & when his bride whom I never took for a bride (he was only ten days in winning her!) asked me what I thought of Mr Newnam, .. I answered that he seemed to know what truth was, better than he knew how to say it. Afterwards, I met him at a friend’s house, & drank tea with him. A circle of women hung upon the articulations of his lips. He spoke very much as he preached—only he said ‘yes’ & ‘no’ a good deal oftener, those being his chief rhetorical figures in conversation. And then people asked me, what I thought of Mr Newnam? Why, what cd I think? He had a little half-smile in continuity, which I did’nt like,—he never said a word indicative of a thing beyond a commonplace. So I thought he was rather weak, & very dull, & by no means worth any thinking of!– Presently came the surprise. A friend of his, a fellow of a college, opened out the whole thunder-cloud to us. Mr Newnam of Oxford was a powerful man—but this Mr Newnam, my acquaintance at Sidmouth, was a Hercules to him—a most powerful man, .. a wonderful man. When he was at Oxford, he carried the first classes before him in a whirlwind,—& if he had breathed, the whole university wd have been scattered like dust. Equal to anything! Astonishing abilities! The professors bowed down to the skirts of his garment—the Dons were confounded in his presence—he was a hero without Carlyle!– You may imagine my confusion. I resolved never to call anybody dull, who was dull at tea time again.
Mr Haydon has had the goodness to send me two admirable horses[’] heads—& his studies for the Curtius, the Saragossa, & the Adam & Eve cartoon. [8] The suggestions are delightful to me––& I lie here & dream dreams of the completions.
Mr Kenyon—“Will I see him for a moment?” To be sure, I will–
And so ends my letter–
Ever your own
EBB.
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 176–178 (as [?February ] [1843]).
Manuscript: Folger Shakespeare Library and Wellesley College.
1. Dated by the reference to Haydon’s sketches. EBB, in letter 1078, commented on those of Curtius and the Arab horse’s head. Haydon asked for the return of the latter in letter 1109, so this letter must fall between them. It is possible that this letter forms part of the missing conclusion to letter 1091, hence the conjectural dating.
2. Presumably a report by Henry Cary on the state of the Oxford Movement, which had been shaken by the withdrawal late in 1842 of one of its founders, John Henry Newman, to Littlemore Monastery. His three-year seclusion there ended with his conversion to the Roman Church in 1845.
3. Carlyle’s series of lectures had been published in 1841 as Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. It probably owed its rejection at Oxford to his critical view of the current state of the Established Church.
4. The Merchant of Venice, III, 2, 157. The book EBB mentions was probably Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church, Viewed Relatively to Romanism and Popular Protestantism (1837). EBB misspells “Newman” throughout this letter.
5. Pusey was one of the chief spokesmen of the Oxford Movement (see letter 803, note 2). EBB’s reference to his fasting is an oblique criticism of the Movement’s emphasis on dogma and ritual, which, to Non-Conformists such as EBB, smacked of Romanism.
6. John Henry Newman’s younger brother, William Francis (1805–97). He spent the years 1830–33 in Persia with Anthony Norris Groves.
7. After returning from Persia, Newman was classical tutor and lecturer in mathematics at Bristol College from 1834 to 1841. He had married, in 1835, Maria Kennaway, a Plymouth Sister and the daughter of Sir John Kennaway.
8. “The Maid of Saragossa” was completed in July 1842 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843. “Adam and Eve” was finished in September 1842 and was shown in Westminster Hall in June 1843, along with the other cartoons competing as subjects for decoration of the new Houses of Parliament. See letter 1078, note 2, for comment on the other sketches.
___________________