Correspondence

2976.  EBB to Mary Russell Mitford

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 17, 165–168.

138 Avenue des Champs Elysées

November 12. [1851] [1]

I see your house, my beloved friend, & clap my hands for pleasure. It will suit you admirably I see plainly from Paris—and how right you are about the pretty garden, not to make it fine & modern—you have the right instincts about such things & are too strong for Mrs Loudon [2] & the landscape gardeners. The only defect apparent to me at this distance is the size of the sitting room. You ought to have a comfortable sitting-room, and, if I were you, I should look suspiciously about the walls to see if I could’nt break down one, & make a good room of two small ones. You can scarcely want such a profusion of back & front kitchens for instance, & I think I should struggle to make myself a nest by annihilating a few of these ‘offices’. If you were to see what we call “an apartment” in Paris! We have just a slip of a kitchen, & no passage, no staircase to take up the space, which is altogether spent upon sitting & sleeping rooms. Talk of English comforts!– It’s a national delusion. The comfort of the continental way of life has only to be tasted to be recognized—(with the exception of the locks of doors & windows, which are barbaric here—there’s no other word for it.) The œconomy of a habitation is understood in Paris—you have the advantages of a large house without the disadvantages .. without the coldness, without the dearness. And the beds, chairs & sofas are perfect things. But the climate is not perfect it seems, for we have had very cold weather the last ten days & I am a prisoner as usual. Our friends swear to us that it is exceptional weather & that it will be warmer presently—and I listen with a sort of “doubtful doubt” [3] worthy of a metaphysician. It is some comfort to hear that it’s below zero in London meanwhile, & that Scotland stands eight feet deep in snow–

We have a letter for George Sand, (directed à Madame George Sand) from Mazzini, and we hear that she is to be in Paris within twelve days. Then we must make a rush & present it, for her stay here is not likely to be long & I would not miss seeing her for a great deal, though I have not read one of her late dramas & only by faith understand that her wonderful genius has conquered new kingdoms. Her last romance ‘Le Château des desserts,’ is treated disdainfully in the Athenæum. [4] I have not read that even—but Mr Chorley is apt to be cold towards French writers & I dont accept his judgement as final—therefore. Have you seen M. de la Marc’s correspondence with Mirabeau?– [5] And do you ever catch sight of the Revue des deux Mondes? In the august number, is an excellent & most pleasant article on my husband—elaborately written & so highly appreciatory as well nigh to satisfy me. “Set you down this” [6] —that there has sprung up in France lately an ardent admiration of the present English schools of poetry .. or rather, of the poetry produced by the present English schools, .. which they consider an advance upon the poetry of the ages,—think of this, you English readers who are still wearing broad hems & bombazeens for the Byron & Scott glorious days!–

Let me think what I can tell you of the president. I never saw his face though he has driven past me in the boulevards, & past these windows constantly, but it is said that he is very like his portraits—& yes, rumour & the grisettes speak of his riding well. Wilson & Wiedeman had an excellent view of him the other day as he turned into a courtyard to pay some visit; & she tells me that his carriage was half full of petitions & nosegays, thrown through the windows. What a fourth act of a play we are in just now! It is difficult to guess at the catastrophe. Certainly he must be very sure of his hold on the people to propose repealing the May edict, [7] and yet there are persons who persist in declaring that nobody cares for him & that even a revision of the constitution will not bring about his re-election. [8]  I am of an opposite mind,—though there is not much overt enthusiasm of the population in behalf of his person. Still, this may arise from a quiet resolve to keep him where he is, & an assurance that he cant be ousted in spite of the people & army. It is significant, I think, that Emile de Girardin should stretch out a hand .. (a little dirty, be it observed in passing) and that Lamartine, after fasting nineteen days & nights, (a miraculous fast, without fear of the “préfet” [9] ) should murmur a ‘credo’ in favour of his honesty. [10] As to honesty .. “I do believe he’s honest” [11] — .. that is to say, he has acted out no dishonesty as yet, and we have no right to interpret doubtful texts into dishonorable allegations. But for ambition .. for ambition! Answer from the depth of your conscience .. “de profundis” [12] – Is he or is he not an ambitious man? Does he or does he not, mean in his soul to be Napoleon the second. Yes, yes .. I think—you think—we all think.

Robert’s father & sister have been paying us a visit during the last three weeks. They are very affectionate to me, & I love them for his sake & their own, & am very sorry at the thought of losing them which we are on the point of doing. We hope however to establish them in Paris, if we can stay, & if no other obstacle should arise before the spring when they must leave Hatcham. Little Wiedeman draws, as you may suppose .. he is adored by his grandpapa .. & then, Robert! they are an affectionate family & not easy when removed one from another. Sarianna is full of accomplishment & admirable sense, .. even-tempered & excellent in all ways—devoted to her father, as she was to her mother: indeed the relations of life seem reversed in their case, & the father appears the child of the child–

I have some faint hope that Henrietta, with her husband & baby, may pay a visit to Paris before the winter ends. I tempt her softly, softly.

Sad indeed is the story you relate of your American friend. Did she die of a fever or how? Has he any children? [13]

Perhaps you have not seen Eugene Sue’s Mysteres de Paris; [14] & I am not deep in the first volume yet. Fancy the wickedness & stupidity of trying to revive the distinctions & hatreds of race .. between the Gauls & Franks! The Gauls, please to understand, are the “proletaires,” and the capitalists, are the Frank invaders (call them Cosaques, says Sue) out of the forests of Germany.!!

May Mrs Acton Tindal embower you in roses & honeysuckle .. round the windows, round the doors, may she lead the flowering garlands!—and then, when I go to see you, I shall find you half hidden in a green nest. May God bless you. Mr Kenyon wont come to visit Paris till the spring he says—more’s the pity. Write & say how you are, & accept Robert’s love with mine– I saw no Mr Harness,—& no Talfourd of any kind. The latter was a kind of misadventure as Lady Talfourd was on the point of calling on me when Robert would not let her. We were going away just then. Mr Horne I had the satisfaction of seeing several times—you know how much regard I feel for him. One evening he had the kindness to bring his wife miles upon miles just to drink tea with us, and we were to have spent a day with them somehow, half among the fields, but engagements came betwixt us adversely. She is less pretty, & more interesting than I expected—looking very young, her black glossy hair hanging down her back in ringlets,—with deep earnest eyes, & a silent listening manner. He was full of the Household Words, & seems to write articles together with Dickens .. which must be highly unsatisfactory .. as Dickens’s name & fame swallow up every sort of minor reputation in the shadow of his path. I should’nt like for my part (& if I were a fish), to herd with crocodiles. But I suppose the Household Words pay [15] —and that’s a consideration. ‘Claudie’ [16] I have not read. We have only just subscribed to a library, & we have been absorbed a good deal by our visitors.

We have had a beautiful Daguer[r]eotype taken of our Wiedeman. [17] He looks in it larger & older than he is, but it is very beautiful & characteristic, & the infantine softness of the countenance is exquisitely preserved. The Parisian Daguer[r]eotypes are celebrated you know. He is improving in his speech, & mixes up the languages most Babelically .. talks of “due vans” for instance, instead of “two swans.” Never was a more engaging little creature, we think of course! and for a spoilt child, he really is the best in the world. Write, & dont leave off loving me. I will tell you of everybody noticeable whom I happen to see, & of George Sand among the first. Love

your ever affectionate

Ba.

And mind you write & say how you are. I have good hope of the new house.

Address: Miss Mitford / Swallowfield / near Reading.

Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 333–337.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Year provided by postmark.

2. Jane Loudon (née Webb, 1807–58) wrote numerous books on gardening and botany, including Instructions in Gardening for Ladies (1840), which reached an eighth edition in 1851. Her late husband was noted horticulturalist and landscape designer John Claudius Loudon (1783–1843), who, according to EBB’s brother George, had “laid out the grounds” for Hope End (letter to RB, 15 April 1889, ms at Eton).

3. See letter 2931, note 2.

4. In a review that appeared in the issue of 25 October 1851, Henry F. Chorley called Sand’s novel “insipid; innocent of any imaginable purpose” and concluded: “Were not Madame Dudevant a celebrity, … we should take shame for having occupied our readers for even a passing instant about nonsense at once so extravagant and so vapid as this” (no. 1252, p. 1115). Chorley is given as the reviewer in the marked file copy of The Athenæum now at City University (London).

5. Correspondance entre comte de Mirabeau et le comte de la Marck pendant les année 1789, 1790 et 1791 (1851). Auguste Marie Raymond (1753–1833), Comte de La Marck, Prince d’Arenberg, was a Flemish nobleman popular in the court of Louis XVI. Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau (1749–91), French statesman, was an influential voice of compromise during the first years of the French Revolution.

6. Othello, V, 2, 351.

7. See letter 2860, note 7.

8. The French constitution prohibited a second term for a president. Louis Napoleon had introduced a proposal to the Assembly that the prohibition be abolished, but the proposal had been thrown out in July (EB).

9. “Prefect” or “chief of Paris police.”

10. In an article that appeared in Le Pays, as reported in Galignani’s Messenger for 10 November 1851, Lamartine acknowledged “the important services that Louis Napoleon has rendered to society” and believed “his motives to be good.” The article in Le Pays was introduced by a letter from Lamartine stating that because of illness, he had been “nineteen days and nights without food.” Galignani’s speculated that the illness had disposed Lamartine to be more supportive of the French president.

11. Cf. Othello, III, 3, 125.

12. “Out of the depths,” the opening words of Psalm 130.

13. The reference is to James T. Fields and his first wife, Eliza Josephine (née Willard, 1831–51), who married on 13 March 1850. Mrs. Fields died of tuberculosis in July. Fields married secondly his first wife’s cousin, Annie Adams, on 15 November 1854; there were no children from either marriage (see Judith A. Roman, Annie Adams Fields: The Spirit of Charles Street, Bloomington, Indiana, 1990, pp. 9–10).

14. Sic, for Les Mystères du peuple (1849–56).

15. Dickens had engaged Horne as a sub-editor at five guineas a week.

16. A play by George Sand, first performed in January 1851.

17. As can be seen in the following letter, there were three portraits made; none of these likenesses is extant.

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