Correspondence

1761.  EBB to Julia Martin

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 230–231.

[London]

November 16. 1844

My dearest Mrs Martin,

I thank you much for your feuilleton, & though with nothing to say in exchange, worth your listening to, will, (as I have found Miss Martineau’s letter) just acknowledge with a word the kindness of yours– We had the story of the falling in of the cliff in the papers, [1] & therefore I was glad to be prepared, by the previous knowledge of your safety from rock & fear. It was wise to go to the Hotel,—even if you considered only your nerves: and if I were you, I shd be half inclined to be over-wise, and get soon into another house. How hot the weather is! warm is too cold a word for it!– I am forced to let the fire go this morning—there is no bearing it, even to please Papa, who is quite incredulous when I am coy about the putting on of coals– His idea of Paradise, you know, is a temperature at 85 in the shade—and I like 60 better– Sixty five is tolerable—and sixty two best of all– I suppose it depends altogether, for the individual, whether the blood creeps or canters—and mine is apt to gallop.

I shall soon expect to hear that dear Mr Martin feels stronger, & grows to have a soul equal to all sorts of imprudences. Only then will be the time for your soul to act,—and then his will enact the part of Mr Emerson’s under-soul. [2] Mr Kenyon has not come back yet—and I have seen nobody as a visitor, since I saw you, except Mr Hunter who was here yesterday. Today, I perceive in the ‘contents’ of the New ‘Westminster Review,’ that my poems are reviewed in it [3] —and I hope that you will both be interested enough in my fortunes to read at the library what may be said of them. Did George tell you that he imagined (as I also did) the Blackwood paper to be by Mr Phillimore the barrister? [4] Well—Mr Phillimore denies it altogether—has in fact, quarrelled with Christopher North & writes no more for him—so that I am quite at a loss now, where to carry my gratitude–

Do write to me soon. I hear that everybody shd read Dr Arnold’s Life. [5] Do you know also Eothen—a work of genius? [6] You have read perhaps, Howitt’s ‘Visits to Remarkable places’ in the first series, & second,—and Mrs Jameson’s “Visits & sketches”—and “Life in Mexico”– Do you know the “Santa Fe Expedition”—& Custine’s Russia—& “Forest Life” by Mrs Clavers? [7] You will think that my associative process is in a most desorderly state, by all this running up & down the stairs of all sorts of subjects, in the naming of books. I would write a list, more as a list shd be written, if I cd see my way better—and this will do for a beginning in any case– You do not like romances, I believe, as I do—and then nearly every romance now a days, sets about pulling the joints of one’s heart & soul out, as a process of course– Ellen Middleton (which I have not read yet) is said to be very painful. [8] Do you know Leigh Hunt’s exquisite essays called The Indicator & Companion &c—published by Moxon? [9] I hold them at once in delight & reverence.

May God bless you both

I am ever your affectionate

Ba–

The letter of Miss Martineau enclosed, [10] is not written in her own hand, but by her secretary’s—except in the signature. Send it back when you have quite done with it.

Publication: LEBB, I, 215–216 (in part).

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. The incident occurred on 12 November. The Dover Chronicle for 16 November 1844 described it as a “slip of chalk, miscalled a fall of the cliff,” caused by heavy rains saturating the loose chalk.

2. EBB is punning on Emerson’s essay “The Over-Soul.”

3. For the text of this review, see pp. 374–378.

4. One of a well-known family of jurists, John George Phillimore (1808–65), who, according to The Wellesley Index, contributed to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine at this time. However, James Ferrier has been identified as the author of this review.

5. See letter 1738, note 4.

6. Eōthen, or Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East (1844), an account of adventures by Alexander William Kinglake (1809–91).

7. Forest Life (New York, 1842) by Mrs. Mary Clavers, pseud. of Caroline Matilda Kirkland (née Stansbury, 1801–64). The first series of William Howitt’s Visits to Remarkable Places; Old Halls, Battle Fields, and Scenes Illustrative of Striking Passages in English History and Poetry was published in 1840; the second series appeared in 1842. Other publications mentioned here: Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad (1834) by Mrs. Jameson; Life in Mexico (1843) by Frances Erskine Calderón de la Barca (1804–82); and Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition (1844) by George Wilkins Kendall. La Russie en 1839 by Astolphe Louis Léonard, Marquis de Custine was published in Paris in 1843; a translation appeared the following year in England.

8. Ellen Middleton. A Tale (1844) by Georgiana Fullerton (née Gower, 1812–85).

9. The Indicator, and The Companion (1840) had been previously published as separate titles in 1820–22 and 1828 respectively.

10. Letter 1742.

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