389. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 268–269.
[Hope End]
Monday. [11 October 1830] [1]
My dearest friend,
I think that we did not live in clover, as you say, but in asphodel which certainly sounds much more classical. Do you know (what I have just thought of) that asphodel is the common yellow & not very pretty flower which grows about our meadows, and that an expression of Homer has been thus translated—
the stern Achilles
Stalked thro’ a mead of daffodilies? [2]
So that, after all, you dont let our dignity down so much,—in speaking as you do,—and we may quite as well stalk thro’ clover as daffodilies—may we not?——
I wish that my trouble in repeating words, was the only thing which I thought of, and you had reason to regret. But “si tibi cura mei”, [3] what must have been my “cura tui” in this respect! I was certainly troubled in thinking of what you sometimes endured,—& this was my only trouble worth mentioning. Is it allowable to hope that the rapidity or indistinctness or the obstacle whatever it may be, to your understanding me readily when I read, can be corrected or removed? The correction & removal can scarcely be among impossibilities—utter impossibilities, such as Lord Byron having no pre-eminent genius, & I no regard for you!——
I have heard no more about the ghost—excepting that now she has not merely a “local habitation” but a “name”; [4] for she is said & devoutly believed to be, Lady Tempest, [5] who was the proprietress of this house before Papa bought it. I hope she may keep to the bridge, & not show any other local attachments. Mr D’Orlier, in consequence of hearing or fancying that he heard some noise in the hedge near the fatal spot, fired both his pistols into it, a night or two ago. Fortunately for him, no coroner’s inquest ensued.
How many orisons did you make, that the Duchess of Kent might be inflicted on Papa? She & Prince Leopold & Sir John Conroy [6] were here yesterday when we were at chapel,—& upon Papa being announced to be from home, Sir John Conroy left his card & his compliments, the Duchess rode thro’ the yard, under the clock, & after having seen everything that was least worth seeing, went back to Malvern. Papa seems to be much gratified that their Royal Highnesses … did not ride over the grass,—and asked with a little expression of anxiety, what Sir John Conroy could mean by leaving his card. I suggested (out of spitefulness) that he clearly meant .. Papa to return the visit. Papa certainly ought to do so,—and still more certainly will not.
What did you do to the Quaker on Friday night—Dip him in Helicon,—that he should be wet enough to go to the ball?
You acknowledge the weather to be colder now,—do you not? Either the weather is, generally,—or our climate is particularly,—for I have been inclined to shiver, ever since my return home. Henrietta & I are going to Eastnor on Friday; but I have refused to stay longer than Saturday morning.
Have I really delayed till the last, to thank you for your kind letter? And yet, “thank you for it”, is not less feelingly said– Papa makes me talk of you, till I am quite tired!——
Ever yours very affectionately
E B Barrett.
Address, on integral page: Hugh Stuart Boyd Esqr
Publication: EBB-HSB, pp. 108–109.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by the visit to Hope End of the Duchess of Kent, and EBB’s impending stay at Eastnor Castle.
2. This translation from the Odyssey (XI, 538–539) is ascribed to Pope by Joseph Spence in his Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters … (1820, Sec. VII, p. 285).
3. “If you care for me [take care of yourself]” (Ovid’s Heroides, XIII, 166).
4. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, V, 1, 17.
5. Sarah Pritchard Tempest (née Lambert). She died in 1819.
6. Sir John Conroy (1786–1854) was secretary to the Duchess of Kent. George Moulton-Barrett recalled, many years later, in a letter to Robert Browning (15 April 1889): “Hope End had many admirers, & in summer time was visited by sight seers from Malvern. I remember one afternoon going up the park homewards with others, meeting a young girl on a pony coming from the house with a gentleman,—that young girl was our present Queen, & the gentleman Sir John Conroy.”
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