Correspondence

2692.  EBB to Julia Martin

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 273–278.

Florence.

August 7. 1847.

My dearest Mrs Martin how I have been longing to get this letter which comes at last, & justifies the longing by the pleasure it gives!– Ever since Fanny Hanford & her brother left Florence, I have wished too to write to you as well as to be written to by you, to tell you that we were quite pleased & more than pleased by what we saw of both of them, & full of regret that it should be so little. Such a pity it seemed .. such a shame almost, .. that we should have them only for a day here in Florence, where they had not seen everything where I for my part had seen nothing, & where we might have agreed so pleasantly in going about together to look at sights & learn to know one another in the same breath. I am sure I should love her warmly– I did not fancy that she would be so affectionate to me as I found her, .. & then the intelligence & quickness & freshness of mind struck both Robert & me as delightful– He liked her exceedingly .. & her brother besides: and we cant believe, (do tell her with my love) that we shall not soon meet again to catch up the drawbacks & supply the omissions of that short day’s intercourse, which it was very good of her to mention kindly when she wrote to you– Quære .. if you & dear Mr Martin could do anything better for next winter than to bring her out with you to Rome, & let us all enjoy it thoroughly & together?– There’s a dream. I have a goose which lays a new golden egg of a Dream every morning, [1]  .. and not so much of a goose either! Some swans are less wise perhaps!– What do you say .. or dream .. in return? Now I beg you to consider seriously this proposition, & to remember that when people once begin to travel, it is as easy to touch Rome as Pau, .. the difference is not worth an argument. Then, consider the Pope, & that such a Pope deserves to be looked at and supported. Pray think of it .. I appeal to dear Mr Martin– Also, I want to look at you & to thank you both for all your warm sympathy better than can be done at this distance– How kind, how affectionate you are to me, .. and how strong your claim is that I should thrust on you in defiance of good taste & conventions, every evidence & assurance of my happiness, so as to justify your faith to yourselves & others. Indeed, indeed, dearest Mrs Martin, you may “exult” for me—and this, though it shd all end here & now. The uncertainties of life & death seem nothing to me– A year (nearly) is saved from the darkness: and if that one year has compensated for those that preceded it, which it has abundantly, why let it for those that shall follow, if it so please God– Come what may, I feel as if I never could have a right to murmur– I have been happy enough. Brought about too, it was indeed, by a sort of miracle, which to this moment, when I look back, bewilders me to think of .. and if you knew the details, .. counted the little steps .. & could compare my moral position three years & a half ago with This, you wd come to despise San Gualberto’s miraculous tree at Vallombrosa, which being dead, gave out green leaves in recognition of his approach, as testified by the inscription .. do you remember? [2] But you cant stop today to read mine—so rather I shall tell you of our exploit in the mountains … only one thing I must say first, one thing which you must forgive me for the vanity of resolving to say at last, having had it in my head very often. There’s a detestable engraving, [3] which if you have the ill luck to see, (and you may, because horrible to relate, it is in the shop windows) will you have the kindness, for my sake, not to fancy like Robert? it being, as he says himself, the very image of “a young man at Waterloo House, [4] in a moment of inspiration .. ‘A lovely blue, Ma’am!’” It is as like Robert as Flush–

And now I am going to tell you of Vallombrosa– You heard how we meant to stay two months there, & you are to imagine how we got up at three in the morning to escape the heat (imagine me!) and with all our possessions & a “dozen of port” (which my husband doses me with twice a day because once it was necessary) proceeded to Pelago by vettura & from thence in two sledges drawn each by two white bullocks up to the top of the holy mountain. (Robert was on horseback.) Precisely it must be as you left it– Who can make a road up a house? We were four hours going five miles, and I with all my goodwill was dreadfully tired, & scarcely in appetite for the beef & oil with which we were entertained at the House of Strangers. We are simple people about diet, & had said over & over that we would live on eggs & milk & bread & butter during these two months .. we might as well have said that we wd live on manna from heaven. The things we had fixed on, were just the impossible things– Oh .. that bread, with the fetid smell, which stuck in the throat like Macbeth’s amen! [5] I am not surprised you recollect it! The hens had “got them to a nunnery” [6] & objected to lay eggs—and the milk & the holy water stood confounded. But of course we spread the tablecloth just as you did, over all drawbacks of the sort—and the beef & oil, as I said, and the wine too, were liberal & excellent, & we made our gratitude apparent in Robert’s best Tuscan—in spite of which we were turned out ignominiously at the end of five days, having been permitted to overstay the usual three days by only two. No, nothing could move the lord Abbot– He is a new abbot & given to sanctity, & has set his face against women. “While he is abbot” he said to our mediating monk, “he will be abbot”. So he is abbot, & we had to come back to Florence. As I read in the Life of San Gualberto, laid on the table for the edification of strangers, the Brothers attain to sanctification, among other means, by cleaning out pigstyes with their bare hands, without spade or shovel .. but that is uncleanliness enough—they wdnt touch the little finger of a woman! Angry I was, I do assure you—I shd have liked to stay there, in spite of the bread. We shd have been only a little thinner at the end. And the scenery .. oh, how magnificent! how we enjoyed that great, silent, ink-black pine-wood!—and do you remember the sea of mountains to the left? how grand it is– We were up at three in the morning again to return to Florence, and the glory of that morning-sun breaking the clouds to pieces among the hills, is something ineffaceable, from my remembrance. We came back ignominiously to our old rooms, but found it impossible to stay on account of the suffocating heat .. yet we scarcely could go far from Florence, because of Mr Kenyon & our hope of seeing him here—(since, lost–) A perplexity, ended, by Robert’s discovery of our present apartment, in the Pitti side of the river (indeed close to the Grand Duke’s palace) consisting of a suite of spacious & delightful rooms, which come within our means, only from the deadness of the summer season, .. comparatively quite cool and with a terrace which I enjoy to the uttermost through being able to walk there without a bonnet, by just stepping out of the window. The church of San Felice is opposite, .. so we have’nt a neighbour to look through the sunlight or moonlight & take observations. Is’nt that pleasant altogether? We ordered back the piano & the book-subscription, &, settled for two months .. & forgave the Vallombrosan monks for the wrong they did us, like secular Christians. What is to come after, I cant tell you– But probably we shall creep slowly along toward Rome, & spend some hot time of it at Perugia which is said to be cool enough. I think more of other things, wishing that my dearest kindest sisters had a present as bright as mine, .. to think nothing at all of the future. Dearest Henrietta’s position has long made me uneasy—& since she frees me into confidence by her confidence to you, I will tell you so. Most undesirable it is that this shd be continued .. and yet where is there a door open to escape? I cannot see: at least I cannot for her, .. as she seems to make a larger income than seems within reach, a condition of any step forward. Captain Cook is very much attached to her .. very much, I think: his attachment has stood for years through a knowledge of every obstacle on the part of her family and through even coldness on her own side. There was long a struggle between him & another person for the first place in her affections, and I consider that she decided wisely at last. Surtees Cook is very faithfully therefore attached to her .. and you & I, as women, know how to appreciate such a claim. Then he is amiable & well-principled .. not above her in any way as to intellect, but sufficiently quick for the ends of life .. and as she is fond of saying of him, “a gentleman in all ways.” Very popular he was in his regiment, & by no unworthy means. Altogether I do not doubt of her being happy with him, and moreover, happy or not, I am of opinion that after all which has passed, she could not in honour withdraw .. nor does she desire to withdraw—he has won her affections fairly. But now for the end … What to do under these circumstances? He has been received in Wimpole Street as a guest sans consequence [7] for years, and everyone in the house except the master of it who, strange to say, never sees anything visible (though for things invisible he keeps a sword drawn) has been perfectly aware of the fact—perfectly .. but do not say a word to George who has been perfectly rude besides, & may do something rash in his horror of your knowing it .. of the subject’s being made serious so. But I know that they know of it, .. because never was a courtship more public in this world .. poor Surtees’s sobs, in the hour of his adversity, being heard all over the house, & discussed in my room in full conclave, by all my brothers, .. though now they say nothing, or satisfy themselves by some expressive rudeness to the successful candidate .. which much I regret .. very much! My dear brothers have the illusion that nobody shd marry on less than two thousand a year ..!– Good Heavens, how preposterous it does seem to me! We scarcely spend three hundred—and I have every luxury I ever had, & which it would be so easy to give up, at need—and Robert would’nt sleep, I think, if an unpaid bill dragged itself by any chance into another week. He says that when people get into “pecuniary difficulties,” his “sympathies always go with the butchers & bakers–” So we keep out of scrapes—yet, you see!– Now Surtees Cook has at this moment nearly three hundred a year .. within a few pounds—and I tell you what I would’nt on any account tell him or Henrietta, that if I were they, I would marry directly on it, & then exert myself to increase the income .. which, in time, opportunities will occur, of doing. I would not tell them so .. because the responsibility is too heavy .. and the conviction should originate with themselves. They say that it must be four hundred a year to begin with .. Henrietta says that she cd not “conscientiously” agree to marry on less. To this, I have nothing to answer—only with me [8] it wd be very different, I can assure you, and I have now had some experience. What I (in my own mind) chiefly desire their increase of income for, is, that they might have a better case for Papa, when they lay it before his eyes. Two thousand a year would be unavailing in the way of procuring a consent—that I am certain of:—but it is desirable that there shd be something like “a case”. Surtees Cook has activity & application—& if there were an opening anywhere, he would get on, I do not in the least doubt: and an additional hundred a year would make a clear road for them. He is ready even to sell his commission if there were a desirable channel for the money—. But this frittering away of life .. this ravelling of the golden threads in the daily walks and talks which make the gossip of Wimpole Street .. the continuance of this, I do deprecate & am sorry for on every account—and I dont wonder that my poor dearest Henrietta’s spirits shd be a little worn by the uncertainty & delay.

Thank you for your dear & kind consideration in all things– Aunt Bell did write to me to announce Arlette’s marriage. As to George, he is too proud! I assure you I have tried many sorts of affectionate humility with him, (everything except giving up my husband) and tickled his lips with the end of many an olive-bough .. but it is in vain .. they wont smile at me. So glad I am of the good news of dearest Mr Martin– Tell me that you both continue well. And do write .. & let me be as ever

your grateful & most affectionate Ba–

We have had the most delightful letter from Carlyle .. who has the goodness to say that not for years had a marriage occurred in his private circle, in which he so heartily rejoiced as in ours. He is a personal friend of Robert[’]s .. so that I have reason to be very proud & glad.

Robert’s best regards to you both always—& he is no believer in magnetism—(only I am!). Do mention Mr C Hanford’s health– How strange that he shd come to witness my marriage settlement! Did you hear? [9]

Address, on integral page: Angleterre viâ France / Mrs Martin / Colwall / Malvern / Worcestershire / England.

Publication: LEBB, I, 335–338 (in part).

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Cf. Æsop’s second fable.

2. The Martins were in Italy in the winter of 1832–33, and they might have seen the famous tree that San Gualberto’s followers accepted as a sign of God’s favour. “The tree which grew beside his hut, anticipating the ordinary season, put forth its leaves long before all the others; shaded it during the summer with its abundant foliage; and was the last, when winter came, to shed its leaves on the ground. This was repeated year after year, and was considered a miracle, so that a wall was built about the tree, and it was consecrated and held in highest reverence. This tree was in the year 1008 full-grown; and in 1640, when Diego de Franchi wrote his ‘Life of San Giovanni Gualberto,’ it was still flourishing, and a print of it is engraved in his biography, surrounded by a wall, and with an inscription. What is supposed to be the same tree, surrounded by a wall corresponding in appearance to the old print, is still living and flourishing after these many centuries” (W.W. Story, Vallombrosa, 1881, pp. 30–31).

3. We have been unable to identify this engraving of RB, but presumably it is similar to the one Horne used in A New Spirit of the Age (see our vol. 8, facing p. 271).

4. Waterloo House was located at Cockspur Street and Pall Mall East, and was occupied by the fashionable mercers and drapers establishment of Halling, Pearce and Stone.

5. An allusion to Macbeth, II, 2, 28–30.

6. Cf. Hamlet, III, 1, 120.

7. “Without consequence,” or “significance.”

8. Underscored three times.

9. See the end of letter 2678.

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