2231. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 12, 112–113.
[London]
Saturday. [28 February 1846] [1]
My dearest Mrs Martin,
Indeed it has been tantalizing & provoking to have you close by without being able to gather a better advantage from it than the knowledge that you were suffering. So passes the world & the glory of it– I have been vexed into a high state of morality I assure you. Now that you are gone away I hear from you again: & it does seem to me that almost always it happens so, & that you come to London to be ill & leave it before you can be well again. It is a comfort in every case to know of your being better—& Hastings is warm & quiet, & the pretty country all round (mind you go & see the ‘Rocks’ par excellence!) [2] will entice you into very gentle exercise. At the same time, dont wish me into the house you speak of—. I can lose nothing here, shut up in my prison—& the nightingales come to my windows & sing through the sooty panes. If I were at Hastings I should risk the chance of recovering liberty, & the consolations of slavery would not reach me as they do here. Also, if I were to set my heart upon Hastings I might break it at leisure—there would be exactly as much difficulty in turning my face that way as towards Italy—ah, you do not understand! And I do, at last, I am sorry to say, .. & it has been very long, tedious & reluctant work, the learning of the lesson.
Has Alfred written to dear Mr Martin? He has a situation in the accountant office, disagreeable in no way, & only to be held by him, it has been clearly explained, as the qualification for a higher office, the under secretaryship to the great Mr Saunders himself. [3] So poor Alfred’s spirits have revived, & he means to be a sort of Arch-duke after all. But not a word has been said yet to the head of the house. I agree with Mr Martin’s view of the probabilities—but the possibilities stand out so frightfully, that I dare not advise against the impressions of all the rest. Alfred must act as he thinks best—I do not dare to advise him. Perhaps when George comes, he may say something– For my part, I am powerless—& when one has no power, one shrinks from responsibility.
Did Henrietta tell you that I heard at last from Miss Martineau who thought me in Italy, she said, & therefore was silent. She has sent me her new work [4] (have you read it?) & speaks of her strength & of being able to walk fifteen miles a day .. which sounds to me like a fairy tale, or the ‘Three leagued boots’ at least.
What am I doing, to tell you of? Nothing! The winter is kind—& this divine “muggy” weather (is that the technical word & spelling thereof?) which gives all reasonable people colds in their heads, leaves me the hope of getting back to the summer without much injury. A friend of mine .. one of the greatest poets in England too!.. brought me primroses & polyanthuses the other day, as they are grown in Surrey! [5] Surely it must be nearer spring than we think.
Dearest Mrs Martin, write & say how you are– And may God bless you, both the yous, .. & mention Mr Martin particularly, & what your plans are.
Ever your affectionate
Ba.
Publication: LEBB, I, 276–277 (in part, as [February-March 1846]).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Date provided by EBB’s reference to the flowers that RB had given her on Monday, 23 February.
2. “To the west of Hastings, [is] the first indication of the Tilgate beds, in the form of large masses of grey calciferous sandstone, which lies scattered along the sea-shore. The blocks of this substance, that have been long exposed to the action of the waves, are almost white, and hence the name ‘White Rock,’ given to a large portion of the cliff which has slipped from its original situation, and is now exposed on the beach” (George Mantell, The Geology of the South-east of England, 1833, p. 194).
3. As previously identified (see letter 2165, note 8), Charles Saunders was the General Superintendent of the Great Western Railway.
4. Forest and Game Law Tales (3 vols., 1845); see letter 2150, note 7.
5. Cf. Sonnets from the Portuguese (1856), XLIV, 1–4.
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