1451. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 72–73.
[London]
Dec 3. 1843
My dearest friend I am afraid a letter of mine has stumbled in the post or out of it,—or you would not be wasting any vain fears about me. I am much better—convalescent, I call myself, in the matter of the throat,—& restored to muffins and society. That is to say I can eat & talk,—and have been so shameless as to get well without a medical man.
Ah—but you do not get well, with or without one!– What is the reason my dear dear friend, of all this pain .. shifting its place as the queen, her’s? [1] The weather is damp & uncheery—and I do trust you keep in the house, and avoid draughts and wear flannel. When you are able to write, do let me know how you are—and do be as well as you can—do—my dear dear friend.
You will be startled at the sudden death of poor Miss Pickering .. Ellen Pickering—of fever at Bath. [2] To be quite well on thursday, & on saturday .. gone .. is a sudden removal indeed. Her new work is wet from the press—barely announced. [3] Are you aware whether she was an earnest-minded person, & given to think seriously upon the great mysteries of life & death?– We are too apt to defer such questions in relation either to ourselves or others, until we ask them in the shadow of the grave.
Another remarkable calamity appears inclined to cut short the pursuit of human justice. On the verge of his trial, Mr Monro (Lieutenant Monro) is taken ill with putrid fever & lies in a hopeless state. He will die out into another court of justice, they say—— [4]
I am writing a lively letter to you today—and you wd as lieve, perhaps, attend to your rheumatism as to me. Well—I only professed to myself an intention of satisfying you by a simple ‘yea’ of my being better.
In the meantime the queen is ruffling all possible whigs by her “gracious condescension” to her premier. She cant be a good politician,—not even a ‘good hat<er’>. [5] I am a little vexed with her, I confess—and Papa is very angry. It was so unnecessary—such a superfluous expression of royal favor,—that nobody can find a word in favor of it. Is Miss Shinnett travelling with her? [6] And what can be the significance of it? I suspect that the pomps of the world are dearer than its politics—I was going to say principles—. And this is the woman who was reported to have sent away the desecrated chair (from her apartments in Buckingham Palace) on which the conservative chief had sate down! Is it Prince Albert’s doing? Any way, you were right in your estimate.
Tait is amusing this month [7] ——more than I am .. who am condemned to break off, & no loss to you!–
Ever your affectionate EBB.
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 354–355.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. The Queen and Prince Albert were paying a visit to the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, having previously stayed with Peel at Drayton Manor. On 5 December, they moved on to the Duke of Rutland’s seat, Belvoir, before returning to Windsor on 7 December.
2. She died from scarlet fever on 25 November.
3. Her last work, The Grandfather, published in 1844, was seen through the press by Elizabeth Youatt.
4. Lt. Alexander Thompson Munro was accused of the fatal shooting of his brother-in-law, Lt.-Col. David Lynar Fawcett, in a duel on 1 July 1843. The Times of 4 December reported that Munro had not surrendered for trial on 2 December “owing to illness, arising (it was apprehended) from an attack of typhus fever.”
5. Dr. Johnson had said that Bathurst “was a man to my very heart’s content: he hated a fool, he hated a rogue, and he hated a whig; he was a very good hater” (Anecdotes of the Late Dr. Samuel Johnson, LL.D., 1768, p. 83). Victoria’s aversion to Peel dated from the time when he stipulated that he would only agree to form a new ministry if the Mistress of the Robes and the Ladies of the Bedchamber were replaced with his nominees. The Queen refused, saying that, as long as she occupied the throne, Peel would never be invited to enter the palace gates (see letter 692).
6. Once again, EBB has misread “Skerrett.”
7. EBB probably had in mind the article “Scenes in the Life of an Authoress” (Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, December 1843, pp. 765–775).
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