Correspondence

582.  EBB to Mary Russell Mitford

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 268–269.

London

Tuesday. [Postmark: 15 August 1837]

I sit down my dearest Miss Mitford before your affectionate note & beautiful flower, to try to write some sort of thanks to you—yet not very well knowing how to thank you for so unusual a compliment, [1] paid so gracefully, that one half forgets one’s unworthiness of it, in one’s gratitude for it. Ought’nt I to have a “floral telegraph” to thank you by—

 

By all those token flowers that tell

What words can never speak as well!– [2]

But where should I find flowers beautiful enough to be fit for the expression of a thought about this geraunium? Unless indeed you would let me in at your garden gate.

Joanna Baillie’s was not so beautiful as mine! [3] I know the reason of that—a good reason—almost as good as the kindness! She was immortal already and for herself: [4] and I am to be made so by Miss Mitford’s flowers—whose smile is fame—& therefore I certainly require the most force of beauty.

But after all, flowers are not used to consecrate shrines, but to hang upon such as are consecrated—(Mr Kenyon just from ‘Sicily’, [5] would tell us so!) & I have no right & not even a floricultural worthiness (forgive the even) to touch a flower of yours with a name of mine. You are very kind. I thank you for all your kindness dearest Miss Mitford—& Dr Mitford too, who you say is kindly willing that I should occupy this place of honor near him.

I have been longing to write to you ever since I heard of your being unwell, which I heard first from Mr Kenyon: & then I was afraid of coming upon you at some busy moment, & without having a frank as an excuse. All the frankers I have access to, are wandering about out of sight & hearing—the general franker Sir William Gosset, [6] being a tracker of the Rhine & the steps of Otto. I am grieved at your having been so unwell, & of your being so in a degree, habitually. Dearest Miss Mitford, when you are out of your garden, do you sit a great deal?– Now at night—during those long watching writing nights [7] —against which there is no use remonstrating—do you sit <through> them all? If you do—indeed indeed it is very bad for you. And it would be so wise if you would learn to be a Lollard [8] like me, & establish yourself on a sofa instead of on a chair, & study the art, not a very difficult one, of writing in a recumbent position. I can write as well or as badly when I lie down, as at a desk. I used once to suffer from a feebleness in the spine,—& even now it is exceedingly fatiguing to me, to sit bolt upright without the mediation of the back of a chair, for any length of time. But with your tendency, I am quite sure that a recumbent—not a merely leaning position—would be essentially useful to you. It would lessen both the actual fatigue, & the evils consequent upon sedentary habits–

This is very learned, is it not?– I think I deserve a diploma.

Do you know that Mr Wordsworth is in London? I have not seen him; but I received a message from Mr Kenyon the other day, desiring me to envy him inasmuch as he had made the fourth, at a breakfast party of Wordsworth, Rogers & Moore!– [9] This would have seemed to me quite a dream a little time ago. I dreamed one once myself—beside the great poet—& Miss Mitford & when she went away I heard & felt [10] the brilliant but caustic Landor say .. “She diffuses happiness wherever she goes”. There is nothing truer in all Pericles & Aspasia, [11] than that. May God bless you my very dear & kind friend! Remember me as

Your affectionate

E B Barrett.

My compts to Dash.

Address, on integral page: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / Near Reading.

Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 43–45.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Miss Mitford had named a new strain of geranium after EBB.

2. Byron’s “Maid of Athens” (1812), lines 15–16, slightly misquoted.

3. Joanna Baillie (1762–1851), dramatist and poet, was a friend of Miss Mitford, who had also named a geranium after her.

4. A reference to Scott’s encomium in Marmion, in which she was called “the immortal Joanna.”

5. An illustration of Sicily was paired with Kenyon’s contribution to Findens’ Tableaux.

6. Sir William Gosset, Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons, was the father-in-law of EBB’s cousin Arabella Gosset (née Butler). EBB thus felt able to apply to him for franks for her letters.

7. Dr. Mitford had recently suffered an attack of cholera.

8. The Lollards, adherents of John Wycliffe (d. 1384), did not accept transubstantiation, clerical celibacy, the temporal wealth of the church, or the sale of indulgences.

9. Samuel Rogers (1763–1855), poet and art collector, and Thomas Moore (1779–1852), poet and biographer of Byron.

10. Underscored three times.

11. Pericles and Aspasia (1836) was Landor’s most recent publication. EBB had met him at Kenyon’s house in May 1836. In a letter to Lady Blessington, Landor said “I never saw her but once. It was at my friend Kenyon’s, and I conversed with her for only about ten minutes …” (Marks, p. 432).

___________________

National Endowment for the Humanities - Logo

Editorial work on The Brownings’ Correspondence is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This website was last updated on 3-29-2024.

Copyright © 2024 Wedgestone Press. All rights reserved.

Back To Top