2843. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 16, 94–98.
Florence.
April 15– [1850] [1]
Dearest friend, I have a letter from Arabel to announce the marriage: Surtees Cook applied to Papa on wednesday, & was directly refused. “If Henrietta marries you, she turns her back on this house for ever”.– “Still”, says Arabel, “he was courteous in his manner, although Surtees spoke out most boldly, & they parted by shaking hands. Papa made no allusion to the interview to any one, and was in very good spirits in the evening. Henrietta did not come down to dinner, and wrote a letter to him, telling him of the length of the engagement, & imploring him not to exact it of her to break it off, for she could not do it.” The following day (thursday) passed—no reply to the letter. Arabel was desired to tell my brothers .. such of them as were at home, which George was not till friday .. of the application on Surtees’s part & Henrietta’s, & of their determination to marry. “This I did”, she says, “and certainly they behaved very kindly, and thought that everything had been done which could be done, and that the future step was justified. They did not know the time fixed on, nor did they imagine it so near”. On friday George suddenly arrived from circuit, and in a minute afterwards, Arabel was sent for to the bottom of the stairs, to Papa, who put a letter into her hands for Henrietta. Arabel describes it as a very harsh letter,—“reproaching her with the “insult” she had offered him in asking his consent when she had evidently made up her mind to the conclusion: .. declaring that if she married, her name should never again be mentioned in his presence .. & all such things.” This letter confirmed Henrietta in her determination—and she was married, dear darling, at half past eight the next morning, saturday. “Minny, Bonser [2] and I,” says Arabel, “assisted in the dressing & saw her safely out of the house. She walked to Welbeck Street, with a large shawl covering her smart dress, and there our friends waited for her in a fly, with her wedding bonnet inside. She soon dried her tears, recovered her colour, & looked quite pretty before she got to the church. I sent Bonser there that I might know everything, and her report was, that, Henrietta spoke out so distinctly that she could hear quite well, although she stood a long way off, and that she & Capt Cook drove away in capital spirits. They went to the Mintos for some breakfast, and left by the railroad at a quarter past ten for Weston-super-mare, [3] where they will stay a week and then go to Taunton. I am glad indeed for her sake that she is gone & all her anxieties and troubles over, but I shall miss her dreadfully and have not quite the courage yet to look boldly my loneliness in the face.” Poor, beloved Arabel—how my heart of hearts aches for her! She wrote to me on the saturday, and she had not left her room, nor meant to do so that day. When my brothers were at breakfast, a few lines from her told them of the marriage, to account for Henrietta’s & her absence– She had seen none of them except Henry, who went up to her and inveighed a little against the “imprudence” of the step, but they all seem to have been “quiet” .. which is a comfort. Papa breakfasts later; and letters from Surtees & Henrietta arriving by the post, they were laid by his plate. The report says that he was seen to read the newspaper & go out to the city in his usual way .. taking no notice: and Arabel’s opinion is that he means to treat the whole matter with absolute indifference. Knowing him well, however, I have great fear of some ulterior explosion, & shall not be easy until I hear again. That the matter should pass quietly, & without dreadful scenes, [4] is better than ever I hoped for: as to your hope, dearest Mrs Martin, it had not root for a moment in my mind. Indeed I smiled a little bitterly over that part of your letter, where you seemed to anticipate that, “not to widen the breach with me”, he would avoid casting off my poor Henrietta. Dearest Mrs Martin, you do not understand even now. He said I should be nothing to him—and I am as nothing to him. He has a dreadful consistency of purpose. I do not mean that he never will forgive me—but he never, never will acquit me, nor conclude that the least wrong was on his own side. As for poor Henrietta, his acquiescence in her marriage was as impossible a thing as could be conceived of—I should as soon have expected the morning star to come down to play with my baby. In the first place, I do not believe that he will ever accept cheerfully the marriage of any of his children—and then again, if he did, Surtees Cook was not a son in law to please him. I forgot to tell you that two objections were mentioned in the letter to Henrietta .. “his tractarian principles, and the want of money” .. but, besides, Surtees goes the wrong way in politics, and is antipathetic in various ways. Well—it is all over! It has been a great agitation to me .. for really, in my heart, I believe I had lost faith in the probability of their having courage to accomplish the marriage, .. and even distrusted their choosing to accept the income as it stood, on their own accounts. Henrietta seemed decided against it, and I fancied him scarcely strenuous on the other side. Then a preparatory letter was lost .. which I am thankful for, because they asked my advice in it, and as I have said over & over, it was just the kind of subject on which no advice should be offered or accepted. Surtees wrote to me in the summer about income, and I answered, so as to let him understand, that it was, in my mind, a relative term (.. sufficient income) & depending on the views of the persons concerned, .. fifteen hundred a year, being poverty to one, and a hundred a year riches to another: what wd be “sufficient” for himself & Henrietta I could not say, & did not attempt to say it. I am persuaded that they are right & wise in deciding as they have done,—and all my tender love to my dearest Henrietta, & desire that a being so full of sweetness & goodness should have her right share of happiness in the world, cannot make me uneasy for the result of the decision. Also, in a little-time, something will be done for Surtees, I think—some appointment will be found for him. I am more anxious now about poor Papa himself .. he will miss Henrietta as it was impossible for him to miss me .. and the feeling which he is resolute not to show, must cut the deeper .. must. Oh, if he were all metal, all rock, I should not love him, Mrs Martin, though he is my father, nor suffer pain through his refusal to forgive & receive me. The mere flesh and blood tie is not so much—but love is much—and I love him & cling to him in my thoughts, .. yearn to him for ever.
—See what a letter I have written to you, of me and mine.—— It is a more than fulfilment of what you asked. You will care however to hear particulars interesting to all who love our dear Henrietta. Thank you, both my dear friends, for your sympathy, you who never deny us sympathy! I must tell you that our affectionate friend Miss Tripsack (she held Papa as an infant in her arms, & was the bosom friend of his mother) was present of her own kindness at the marriage– Henrietta wanted no support.–
I have heard that Mrs Trollope is a warmhearted & most agreeable woman .. I heard so from Miss Mitford & others. Her daughter in law is full of accomplishment & talent, and once at Torquay she called upon me & I saw her: Henrietta met her much oftener of course. Mrs Trollope wd certainly be wise in keeping to your mountains instead of coming to Florence “for the summer”:—one might as well retire into an oven for the summer! No—notwithstanding our trying winter, I have not been ill: a little affected sometimes in the throat & chest, but losing nothing in my general health, though I began the winter very ill, through taking an imprudent walk when I ought to have been particularly careful. The physician did not discern that the evil was done, & made me lie on the sofa for weeks & weeks till the necessity disproved itself—then came the severe weather, which wd have assuredly put me straightway to death if I had tried to go out in it. But now it is spring, & time for people to be well & active. Our child can walk alone five or six steps together. He goes to all the fairs and processions, and has a basket full of tambourines & penny trumpets which he insisted on carrying off from the stalls, siezed on, himself & would’nt let go. I assure you he is the only one of our party who is tolerant of the ‘occupation’ .. it cant be denied that he claps his hands & tries to say “Viva”, to the drums. For the rest, his father makes amends, if you could hear him sometimes .. particularly since the P. has returned to R. [5] without being shot. The Examiner has been saluting our new book with a triumph of artillery through six columns .. I mean Robert’s ‘Christmas Eve’ &c. [6] This review has pleased me much. Tell Fanny that her baby’s hair will probably change colour again– Our Wiedeman’s was very dark, & is now very light chesnut. How glad I am to hear of dear Mr Martin’s looking well! Assure him that I never forget or think less warmly of him. You .. you do not say enough of yourself. Write to me soon. Is Pau cheap? are the houses cheap?
Your ever affectionate Ba.
I think I hear dear Mr Martin upon the Gorham question! [7] The fancy just strikes me. Certainly I dont like “tractarian principles” very much better than Papa does himself. What is to be the end? Will Dr Pusey & the Bishop of Exeter fall into “schism” (that diabolical sin) and secede? To do them justice, the baptismal service in the prayer-book, means regeneration by baptism, or means nothing. [8] Only I agree with the ‘Council’, that it had better mean nothing. [9] Robert’s cordial regards to you.
How I sympathize with you in the loss of your maid!——
Address, on integral page: Madame / Madme Martin / Poste Restante / Pau / Basses Pyrenées / France.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Elizabeth Bonser (1828–72) had replaced Wilson as lady’s maid at 50 Wimpole Street. She remained there until 1857 when she married Edwin Hingson, the Moulton-Barretts’ principal man-servant.
3. Surtees Cook recorded that he and Henrietta left London at “½ p[ast] 12” (Surtees, 6 April 1850).
4. When Arabella was writing her letter to EBB on the day of Henrietta’s wedding (6 April), no “scenes” had yet occurred at 50 Wimpole Street. That evening and the next, however, there were confrontations between Edward Moulton-Barrett and his children; see SD1414 and SD1420.
5. The Pope had returned to Rome from exile in Gaeta on 12 April 1850.
6. This laudatory review of Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day appeared in The Examiner for 6 April 1850 (pp. 211–213). The reviewer, identified as John Forster by James A. Davies (see John Forster: A Literary Life, Totowa, New Jersey, 1983, p. 140), declared: “As an emanation of thought in verse we think it every way a most remarkable production, and not unlikely to have effects much beyond the mere pleasure or entertainment of a great many readers.” For the full text of this review, see pp. 360–366.
7. George Cornelius Gorham (1787–1857) had been presented by the Lord Chancellor for the vicarage of Brampford Speke, near Exeter, but Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, refused to institute him on the grounds that he questioned the soundness of Gorham’s orthodoxy on the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Gorham appealed to the judicial committee of the privy council, who ruled in his favour on 8 March 1850. To prevent the decision from being upheld, Phillpotts applied to the Court of the Queen’s Bench; but his application was refused on 25 April 1850. Despite Phillpotts’s opposition, Gorham was eventually instituted by the Archbishop of Canterbury on 6 August 1851. This controversy aroused great interest and generated numerous pamphlets and books; for a complete account, see J.C.S. Nias, Gorham and the Bishop of Exeter (1951).
8. In The Book of Common Prayer, the baptismal service reads: “None can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be regenerate and born anew of Water and of the holy Ghost.”
9. We have been unable to tie EBB’s comments to a specific passage in the report of the Privy Council (Gorham v. Bishop of Exeter. The Judgment of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council, delivered March 8 1850, reversing the decision of Sir H.J. Fust). Although EBB’s remark seems to imply that the Council expressed an opinion on doctrine, that body made it clear that no such opinion was included in its judgment.
___________________
