1518. EBB to Charles Welford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 185–186.
50 Wimpole Street
Feb 4 1844.
Dear Sir [1]
No ordinary obstacle cd have compelled me to relinquish that pleasure of making your aquaintance, which my friend Mr Mathews’s kindness & your own courtesy unite in placing within my reach. But I am a great invalid, as I once mentioned to him,—although he does not understand that for many months I have not left my bedroom, & that for still longer I have been too weak & unwell to mix with society. What pleasure it wd have given me to know you,—& to hear you talk, as Mr Mathews says you can, of the great & kind in America, & of America itself, & its literature!– From which pleasure, as from others, I am shut utterly—and there is no hope for me, at least during the winter & spring, that the door may open. You must forgive me therefore for receiving your visit thus upon paper, & for returning it by this hieroglyphic,—and I will add a request, that,—if, in anything in my power, I can oblige & serve you while you are in England, .. you will not hesitate any more to suggest the means to me as Mr Mathews’s friend, than you would as my own personal friend.
Your faithful servant
Elizabeth B Barrett.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Welford is identified as the recipient of this letter by his acknowledgement of 12 February (letter 1529) and by letter 1579 to Mathews. For Welford’s letter of introduction to EBB, see letter 1427.
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