Correspondence

2312.  EBB to Mary Russell Mitford

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 12, 247–248.

[London]

[mid-April 1846] [1]

Indeed my very dear friend, Alexandria in June is not a place to be cool in .. & there’s no shady side to this part of the subject. My brothers were there late in the autumn & winter. [2] But June! Could you not contrive a better arrangement than that Constantinople & Alexandria should be adopted as resting-places in June? Naples would do .. because Sorrento is close at hand with refreshment—& it would be well, I think, not to chain oneself too closely to the oriental company’s steamer, since when once the Mediterranean is reached, there are steamers enough, Sardinian & French, by means of which your friend might select his course. The Sardinian packets are excellent, & from Marseilles to Genoa, Naples, Sicily &c, he is sure of conveyance by them—. Also from Gibraltar of [sic, for or] Marseilles, it is believed that there are regular French steamers– Now, what if he took his passage to Gibraltar, & then floated away as the opportunities permitted? Why should he bind himself here in England by a programme? Precise information of the course of the foreign ships, we cannot arrive at in London:—that, I found in seeking for myself, last year. [3] But on the spot, there will be every facility—so in the meantime my dearest friend, you must not fancy that it is a hard thing to “take a voyage” because one cannot arrange all the stages on the great sea, as may be done on the railroads: & for my part, I should like the liberty of choice. As to being tied to the stake & burnt at Alexandria, let it not be,—if to avoid it, should be possible. The heat is very great. Also Malta is not tenable for heat in the summer—there should be no staying at Malta. And now consider– He will leave England in this great steamer with a small world of travellers by profession, all round him– Can he be better situated for hearing everything that should be heard .. & will it be difficult to act upon this advice as it comes up fresh with the sea-breezes? Do not be anxious without a cause, therefore. The worst is, the twenty persons in the sleeping-cabin, & really I do not understand this necessity. When I was going, George was shown a map of the vessel, & he took a cabin for three .. my sister, my maid, & myself .. & we were to have it for ourselves without any increase of expense, or any beseeching on our parts. Surely Mr Buckingham might at choice, be one of two or three or four in a small cabin, instead of one of twenty in the large one. He pays the first price, I suppose? Otherwise, there may be an obstacle. In respect to the temperature generally, Mr May must be reasonable, .. & see that nobody can be likely to discover & enjoy an “English Spring” in a South of Europe-summer. We dont cut open oranges to find kernels, as in nuts—nor pull grapes, that we may taste cabbages. It is enough to observe how invalids who cannot bear much heat here in England, rally under the sun of the south, which burns (for it does burn) through the medium of a healing air. To breathe, they say, is blessing enough in the south. Animal life is worth having for itself. I write in haste .. the greatest—but am ever your affecte

EBB

Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 167–168 (as [late April 1846]).

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. The discussion of Mr. Buckingham’s travel plans places this letter after letter 2309, in which RB provides further information concerning travel possibilities, and before letter 2358, in which EBB refers to Mr. Buckingham’s departure. He went to Cadiz, however, not Alexandria (see letter 2206, note 2).

2. Henry and Charles John were in Alexandria in early 1845 (see letter 1813, note 3).

3. A reference to plans the previous autumn for EBB to winter abroad, which, because of her father’s objections, did not come to fruition.

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