3229. RB to Reuben Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 178–179.
Bagni di Lucca,
July 18, ’53.
My dear Reuben,
I have left your kind letter, written just after the appearance of “Colombe,” far too long unanswered—as before, you were the first to give me the news of its success—for such, on the whole, it may perhaps be called. I have heard nothing more since the beginning of June, when Miss Faucit was playing it at Manchester, with much the same result: every body praises her highly which really delights me—the other actors seem poor creatures, and I won’t admit that the play with its Hero left out is a play at all. [1] It was very good of you to go & see & report as promptly as you did.
When you wrote, April 26th, accounts stood thus between us, I believe—I had drawn on you, payable March 28, for £44.8s4d : to meet which you received from Mr. K[enyon]. on the 18th April, a Div. of £45.3s9d and £50. I drew on you for £20. (May 24) and £30. (June 6). You will have received ere this, I hope, a further Div. of £44 odd, and £50 more. Of this, I have just drawn £50—payable 12th August. With respect to the Dd Warrant of the E. Counties Railway—you did quite write [sic] in sparing us the trouble & expense of two postages. I did not give you an order to sign it—not being aware I could do so—only to receive it in Mr K’s place—but if you can, as you say, make a representation to the Secy and get the money without my signature, I shall be very glad—& you have my fullest authorisation hereby. There will be another due by this time, moreover—& if you will have the goodness to add together all these little odds & ends, & apprise me, I will draw next time so as to make all square. I can never thank you enough for all the trouble you take & kindness you show me.
We left Florence on the 15th for this place—the heat was excessive: we have a very cool House here, plenty of room, and very cheap; the place is exquisite—the company a little too numerous—but we keep ourselves to ourselves. My wife is pretty well, the boy very well, very happy & very good– I shall hope to bring him to see you next year—but thro’ our failing to go to Rome this winter (the very thing we went to Italy to do)—we could not return, as we hoped. I hear your family are prodigies of all that is flourishing—that’s right. Give my kindest love to William & my aunt [2] —our horrible visit to London last time prevented my seeing or saying any thing—but all nightmares leave one at last, and I believe ours is pretty well shaken off now. [3] He must forgive my feeling the first & only shock of the kind I ever had, to the exclusion of all other concerns. And you, dear Reuben,—have you, as you engaged in your last letter, really “passed the Rubicon” & had your interview with Gladstone, & got your plan adopted? [4] I hope some of these good things may be in progress of fulfilment. Tell me any thing you can; nothing will delight me more than a good success. By the bye, I have really & prosaically passed the “Rubicon” [5] —not a very desperate business either. Will you take any occasion of giving my best compliments to Mr Smee, & Mr Francis– [6] Old Mr Philipson is about, & well—renouncing all business, however. I find the son, “Abramo,” a very honorable & kind man. I shall stay at this place for three months, if nothing happens to take me to Florence again. And now, goodbye for a while, my dear Reuben– God bless you & all yours– My wife’s kindest regards go with those of
Yours affectionately ever,
Robt Browning.
—Do I very wrong in venturing to enclose a letter for you to throw in the post, just as it is? My impression is, of course, that your magnificent House [7] has the privilege of paying the postage for such a letter as this, sent to their care. Am I in error here?
Address, on integral page: Angleterre viâ France. / Reuben Browning Esq. / care of Messrs N. M. Rothschild & Sons / New Court, / St Swithin’s Lane, / London.
Publication: NL, pp. 63–64 (in part, from incomplete copy, in an unidentified hand, at Huntington).
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. See letter 3219, note 1.
2. William Shergold Browning and his wife Louisa (née Mansir).
3. RB refers to the breach of promise of marriage suit brought against his father and the subsequent relocating to Paris. See letter 3060, note 2, and letter 3069, note 9.
4. Reuben Browning’s “interview with Gladstone,” who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at this time, may have concerned the recently passed Property and Income Tax bill, which was debated in the House of Commons in May and early June. In 1859, Reuben published a pamphlet entitled The Finances of Great Britain Considered. Comprising an Examination of the Property and Income Tax, and Succession Duty Act of 1853. Evidently, he presented Gladstone with a copy of this work, as indicated in the latter’s reply to the author, dated 3 May 1859 (ms with Meredith).
5. Once the border between Cisalpine Gaul and the Republic of Rome. Now called the Fiumicino, it empties into the Adriatic near Rimini. The Brownings crossed the river during their Adriatic tour in the summer of 1848.
6. Both men were friends of RB’s father. John Francis (1810–86), official in the Bank of England and historian who had published in 1847 A History of the Bank of England, Its Time and Traditions From 1694 to 1844. William Smee (1777–1858), chief accountant in the Bank of England, had, several years before, written a letter of reference in support of RB, Sr.’s application for a ticket to the British Museum’s Reading Room (see SD1336 and SD1337 in vol. 14).
7. The House of Rothschild.
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