1350. EBB to Thomas Westwood
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 275–276.
50 Wimpole Street.
[ca. 8] August 1843 [1]
Dear Mr Westwood,
I thank you very much for the kindness of your questioning, & am able to answer that notwithstanding the .. as it may seem to you .. fatal significance of a woman’s silence, I am alive enough to be sincerely grateful for any degree of interest spent upon me. As to Flush, he should thank you too—but at the present moment he is quite absorbed in finding a cool place in this room to lie down in, having sacrificed his usual favorite place at my feet, .. his head upon them, .. oppressed by the torrid necessity of a thermometer above seventy. To Flossy’s acquaintance he wd aspire gladly——only hoping that Flossy does not “delight to bark & bite” like dogs in general—because if he does, Flush wd as soon be acquainted with a cat, he says,—for he does not pretend to be a hero. Poor Flush! “The bright summer days on which I am ever likely to take him out for a ramble over hill & meadow,” are never likely to shine! But he follows, or rather leaps into, my wheeled chair; & forswears merrier company even now, to be near me. I am a good deal better, it is right to say, .. & I look forward to a possible prospect of being better still—though I may be shut out from climbing to Brocken, [2] otherwise than in a vision–
You will see by the length of the ‘Legend’ which I send to you in its only printed form, why I do not send it to you in ms. [3] Keep the book as long as you please. My new volume is not yet in the press, but I am writing more & more in a view to it, pleased with the thought that some kind hands are already stretched out in welcome & acceptance of what it may become. Not as idle as I appear, I have also been writing some fugitive verses for American magazines. [4] This is my confession. Forgive its tediousness–
& believe me thankfully &
very sincerely yours
Elizabeth B Barrett.
Publication: LEBB, I, 149–150.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. This letter falls between no. 1348, to which it is a reply, and Westwood’s acknowledgement (no. 1354).
2. The Brocken, highest of the Harz Mountains, was the setting for the witches’ revelry on Walpurgisnacht, on the eve of May Day.
3. “The Legend of the Browne Rosarie” occupied seven pages (401 lines) in Findens’ Tableaux (1840).
4. Those for Graham’s Magazine.
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