479. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 80–82.
Sidmouth.
May 27th 1833.
My dearest Mrs Martin,
I am half afraid of your being very angry indeed with me: and perhaps it would be quite as well to spare this sheet of paper an angry look of yours, by consigning it over to Henrietta. Yet do believe me—I have been anxious to write to you a long time, and did not know where to direct my letter. The history of all my unkindness to you is this,—I delayed answering your kind welcome letter from Rome, for three weeks, because Henrietta was at Torquay & I knew that she would like to write in it, and because I was unreasonable enough to expect to hear every day of her coming home. At the end of the three weeks, and on consulting your dates and plans, I found out that you would probably have quitted Rome before any letter of mine arrived there. Since then, I have been enquiring, & all in vain, about where I could find you out. All I could hear was, that you were somewhere between Italy & England; and all I could do, was, to wait patiently, and throw myself at your feet as soon as you came within sight & hearing. And now do be as generous as you can, my dear Mrs Martin, and try to forgive one who never could be guilty of the fault of forgetting you, notwithstanding appearances. We heard only yesterday of your being expected at Colwall. And altho’ we cannot welcome you there otherwise than in this way, at the distance of 140 miles,—yet we must welcome you in this way—and assure both of you how glad we are that the same island holds all of us once more. It pleased us very much to hear how you were enjoying yourselves in Rome; and you must please us now by telling us that you are enjoying yourselves at Colwall,—& that you bear the change with English philosophy. The fishing at Abbeville was a link between the past & the present; & would make the transition between the eternal city & the eternal tithes a little less striking. My wonder is how you could have persuaded yourselves to keep your promise and leave Italy as soon as you did. Tell me how you managed it. And tell me everything about yourselves—how you are & how you feel, and whether you look backwards or forwards with the most pleasure—and whether the Influenza has been among your welcomers to England. Henrietta & Arabel & Daisy were confined by it to their beds for several days, and the two former are only now recovering their strength. Three or four of the other boys had symptoms which were not strong enough to put them to bed. As for me, I have been quite well all the spring, and almost all the winter. I dont know when I have been so long well as I have been lately,—without a cough or anything else disagreeable. Indeed, if I may place the influenza in a parenthesis, we have all been perfectly well, in spite of our fishing and boating and getting wet three times a day. There is good trout-fishing at the Otter, & the noble river Sid, which, if I liked to stand in it, might cover my ankles. And lately, Daisy & Sette & Occyta have studied the art of catching shrimps, and soak themselves up to their waists like professors. My love of water concentrates itself in the boat,—and this I enjoy very much, when the sea is as blue & calm as the sky, which it has often been lately. Of society we have had little indeed; but Henrietta had more than much of it at Torquay during three months; and as for me, you know I dont want any—tho’ I am far from meaning to speak disrespectfully of Mr Boyd’s, which has been a pleasure and comfort to me. His house is not farther than a five minutes’ walk from ours,—and I often make it four in my haste to get there. Ask Eliza Cliffe to lend you the May number of the Wesleyan Magazine; and if you have an opportunity of procuring last December’s number,—do procure that. There are some translations in each of them, which I think you will like. The December translation is my favorite, tho’ I was amanuensis only in the May one. Henrietta & Arabel have a drawing master, [1] & are meditating soon beginning to sketch out of doors—that is, if before the meditation is at an end, we do not leave Sidmouth. Our plans are quite uncertain; and Papa has not I believe made up his mind whether or not to take this house on, after the beginning of next month when our engagement with our present landlord closes. If we do leave Sidmouth, you know as well [as] I do where we shall go. Perhaps to Boulogne! perhaps to the Swan River? The West Indians are irreparably ruined if the bill passes. Papa says that in the case of its passing, nobody in his senses would think of even attempting the culture of sugar, & that they had better hang weights to the sides of the island of Jamaica & sink it at once. [2] Dont you think certain heads might be found heavy enough for the purpose? No insinuation I assure you against the administration, in spite of the dagger in their right hands!—— Mr Atwood seems to me a demi-god of ingratitude! [3] So much for the “fickle reek of popular breath” [4] to which men have erected their temple of the winds!—— Who would trust a feather to it?—— I am almost more sorry for poor Lord Grey who is going to ruin us, than for our poor selves who are going to be ruined. You will hear that my Prometheus & other Poems, came into light a few weeks ago—a fortnight ago, I think. I dare say I shall wish it out of the light before I have done with it– And I dare say Henrietta is wishing me anywhere rather than where I am. [5] Certainly I have past all bounds. Do write soon, & tell us everything about Mr Martin & yourself– And ever believe me dearest Mrs Martin,
your affecte
E B Barrett.
Address, on integral page: Mrs Martin / Colwall / Ledbury / Herefordshire.
Publication: LEBB, I, 18–21.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Identified in letter 481 as a Mr. Williams.
2. Parliament was considering a bill for the emancipation of slaves in all British possessions. A letter in The Times of 15 May 1833, signed “A Planter,” foretold “the total cessation of the cultivation of sugar in the British West Indies” if the proposed bill became law.
3. Probably a reference to Thomas Attwood, M.P. for Birmingham, a determined advocate of free trade.
4. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto the Fourth (1818), CLXXI, 2.
5. Henrietta Moulton-Barrett wrote a letter (SD762) in the space remaining on the final page of EBB’s.
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