3148. EBB to John Kenyon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 273–277.
Casa Guidi–
Novr 23 [1852] [1]
We flatter ourselves, dearest Mr Kenyon, that as we think so much of you, you may be thinking a little of us, & will not be sorry .. who knows? .. to have a few words from us.
Novr 24– Just as I was writing, had written, that sentence yesterday, came the letter which contained your notelet– Thank you, thank you, dearest friend! it is very pleasant to have such a sign from your hand across the Alps, of kindness & remembrance. As to my sins in the choice of the Mont Cenis route, Bradshaw was full of temptation, [2] and the results to me have so entirely passed away now, that even the wholesome state of repentance is very faded in the colours– What chiefly remains is the sense of wonderful contrast between climate & climate when we found ourselves at Genoa and in June. I cant get rid of the astonishment of it even now– At Turin I had to keep up a fire most of the night in my bedroom, and at Genoa, with all the windows & doors open we were gasping for breath, languid with the heat .. blue burning skies overhead, & not enough stirring air for refreshment– Nothing less perhaps would have restored me so soon—and it was delightful to be able during our last two days of our ten days there, to stand on Andrea Doria’s terrace and look out on that beautiful bay with its sweep of marble palaces. My “unconquerable mind” [3] even carried me half way up the lighthouse [4] for the sake of the ‘view,’ .. only there I had to stop ingloriously, & let Robert finish the course alone while I rested on a bench:—aspiration is not everything either in literature or lighthouses, you know, let us be ever so “insolent.”–
Well, and since we left Turin, everywhere in Italy we have found summer, summer—not a fire have we needed even in Florence. Such mornings, such evenings, such walkings out in the dusk, such sunsets over the Arno! ah, Mr Kenyon, you in England forget what life is in this out of door fresh world, with your cloistral habits & necessities! I assure you I cant help fancying that the winter is over & gone [5] .. the past looks so cold & black in the warm light of the present. We have had some rain, but at night, and only thundery frank rains which made the next day warmer—and I have all but lost my cough & am feeling very well & very happy.
Oh yes, it made me glad to see our poor darling Florence again– I do love Florence when all’s said against it, and when Robert (demoralized by Paris) has said most strongly that the place is dead & dull & flat .. which it is, I must confess, .. particularly, to our eyes fresh from the palpitating life of the Parisian boulevards where we could scarcely find our way to Richard’s [6] for the crowd during our last fortnight there. Poor Florence—so dead, as Robert says, & as we both feel .. so trodden flat in the dust of the vineyards by these mules of Austria & these asses of the papacy .. good Heavens, how long are these things to endure? I do love Florence, when all’s said. The very calm, the very dying stillness is expressive & touching– And then our house, our tables, our chairs, our carpets, .. everything looking rather better for our having been away! Overjoyed I was to feel myself at home again!—our Italians so pleased to see us, .. Wiedeman’s nurse rushing in, kissing my lips away almost, & siezing on the child .. “Dio mio, come è bellino!” [7] .. the tears pouring down her cheeks, .. not able to look, for emotion, at the shawl we had brought her from England. Poor Italians! who can help caring for them, and feeling for them in their utter frustration just now? The unanimity of despair on all sides is an affecting thing, I can assure you. There is no mistake here, no possibility of mistake or doubt as to the sentiment of the people towards the actual regime; & if your English newspapers earnestly want to sympathize with an oppressed people, let them speak a little for Tuscany. The most hopeful word we have heard uttered by the Italians, is,—“surely it cannot last.” It is the hope of the agonizing–
But our ‘carta di soggiorno’ [8] was sent to us duly. The government is not overlearned in literature—oh no.
We went early to call on the Trollopes—and tell dear Miss Bayley with my love, Mrs T. Trollope expects her confinement next march. [9] Most glad I was to hear it. She looks ill & worn, but the situation might account for this. Mr Tom Trollope walked with us round his garden where he has built a magnificent greenhouse—the orange trees paying the expenses, which must be considerable. A noble commerce of oranges .. is’nt it? We did not see the elder Mrs Trollope, because she happened to be unwell that day & was lying down.
And only Robert has seen Mr Powers yet .. for he is in the crisis of removal to a new house & studio, [10] a great improvement on the last, and an excellent sign of prosperity of course– He is to come to us some evening as soon as he can take breath. We have had visits from the attachés at the English embassy here, Mr Wolf, [11] and Mr Lytton, [12] Sir E. Bulwer Lytton’s son, and I think we shall like the latter who (a reason for my particular sympathy) is inclined to various sorts of spiritualism, & given to the magic arts. He told me yesterday that several of the American rapping spirits are imported to Knebworth, [13] to his father’s great satisfaction– A very young man, as you may suppose, the son is,—refined & gentle in manners. Sir Henry Bulwer [14] is absent from Florence just now.
As to our house, it really looks better to my eyes than it used to look. Mr Lytton wondered yesterday how we could think of leaving it—and so do I, almost!– The letting has answered well enough—that is, it has paid all expenses, leaving an advantage to us of a house during six months—at our choice—to occupy ourselves, or let again. Also it might have been let for a year (besides other offers) only our agent expecting us in september & mistaking our intentions generally[,] refused to do so. Now I will tell you what our plans are. We shall stay here till we can let our house– If we dont let it we shall continue to occupy it, & put off Rome till the spring, but the probability is that we shall have an offer before the end of December which will be quite time enough for a Roman winter. In fact, I hear of a fever at Rome and another at Naples, and would rather on every account, as far as I am concerned, stay a little longer in Florence. I can be cautious, you see, upon some points—and Roman fevers frighten me for our little Wiedeman.
As to your “science” of “turning the necessity of travelling into a luxury,” my dearest cousin, do let me say that like some of the occult sciences it requires a good deal of gold to work out– Your too generous kindness enabled us to do what we could’nt certainly have done without it, but nothing would justify us you know, in not considering the cheapest way of doing things notwithstanding– So Bradshaw, as I say, tempted us, and the sight of the short cut in the map (pure delusion those maps are!) beguiled us, .. and we crossed the “cold valley” & “the cold mountain” when we should’nt have done either—and we have bought experience & paid for it. Never mind! experience is nearly always worth its price. And I have nearly lost my cough, and Robert is dosing me indefatigably with cod’s liver oil to do away with my thinness–
Will you do me a favour? Dont, if you dont like it– Otherwise, will you ask Mr Murray to set down the name of Madame Biondi, as the best monthly nurse in Florence. [15] I hear there is another name down—which need not be withdrawn .. I would do no injury to that person .. only justice to Madme Biondi who is recognized as the head of her order here, a peculiarly intelligent person in whom I am much interested– She attended me in fact—& is now attending the Grand Duchess. Murray’s omission does her harm–
Robert’s best love with that of your most
Gratefully affectionate Ba.
Wiedeman is delighted that you shd send him your love. Love to Miss Bayley– I am very glad that Dr. Henry [16] came to Italy.
Address: Angleterre viâ France / John Kenyon Esqre / Devonshire Place / London.
Publication: LEBB, II, 95–98 (in part).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. i.e., one of the maps produced by George Bradshaw (1801–53), engraver and printer.
3. Wordsworth, “To Toussaint L’Ouverture” (1803), line 14.
4. Built in the 1540’s, Genoa’s lighthouse, known as La Lanterna, is situated on the far western pier of the harbor and stands well over 300 feet above sea level.
5. Cf. Song of Solomon 2:11.
6. Restaurant Richard, which was located at 137 Palais National (Royal), Galerie Valois (Galignani’s New Paris Guide, 1851, p. 590).
7. “My God, how beautiful he is!”
8. “Residence permit.”
9. Beatrice Trollope (1853–81), the only child of Thomas Adolphus Trollope and his wife Theodosia (née Garrow), was born on 8 March.
10. Powers had lived in via della Fornace since 1839. In the autumn of 1852, the sculptor and his growing family had “managed to secure a portion of the adjoining building, which also gave onto the large private inner garden” (Richard P. Wunder, Hiram Powers: Vermont Sculptor, 1805–1873, Newark, Delaware, 1991, I, 281).
11. Henry Drummond Charles Wolff (1830–1908) was the only son of Joseph Wolff (1795–1862), a Jewish convert to Christianity, known for his missionary travels to Bokhara, and founder of the Irvingite Church with Henry Drummond, for whom his son was named. The younger Wolff had been attached to the legation at Florence in June 1852; he returned to England the following year.
12. Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton (1831–91), 1st Earl Lytton (1880), only son of Edward Bulwer-Lytton and his wife Rosina (née Wheeler), was both diplomat and poet. Educated at Harrow and privately tutored at Bonn, he travelled to the United States in October 1850 (in the company of the William Wetmore Storys) to serve as “unpaid attaché” with his uncle Henry Bulwer, British minister at Washington, D.C. (E. Neill Raymond, Victorian Viceroy, 1980, p. 28). He was appointed viceroy of India by Benjamin D’Israeli in 1877. As a poet, he published under the pseudonym Owen Meredith. His first work Clytemnestra (1855) received favourable notice, as did The Wanderer (1859). At this time, he was second attaché in the British Legation at Florence.
13. Knebworth House, about 25 miles N. of London, was the seat of Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
14. William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer (1801–72), Baron Dalling and Bulwer, was the uncle of Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton and currently the British minister at the Legation in Florence. Bulwer had served as minister at Washington from 1849 to 1852.
15. Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Northern Italy (Part II, 1854) noted that “Mrs. Petri, an Englishwoman, Via Romana, 2307, and Mad. Biondi, Via Tornabuoni, at the English Pharmacy, are excellent monthly and sick nurses” (p. 446).
16. William Charles Henry (1804–92), of Haffield House, Ledbury, Herefordshire, was the son of William Henry (1775–1836), also a physician, and his wife Mary (née Bayley, 1775–1837), eldest sister of Sarah Bayley. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1834.
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