605. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 2–4.
London.
1st Jany—— [1838] [1]
I wrote a letter to you dearest Miss Mitford last week which turned out, by force of the destinies, to be for the fire instead of the post. It was heavy with stupidity—& I had no fear of your being uneasy about Mr Kenyon—& I had no frank,—& without one, you wd have paid triple postage for a letter of lead!–
Yet I wished to write to you, after what you told me of your being unwell & of your wish that I should try to do something for you in the pension business. Glad & proud I should have been to do it!– Dearest Miss Mitford! if there ever appears to you the least possibility of my being able to do the least thing for you in any way, you will never if you love & care to please me, hesitate about saying ‘do it’– In the present case, I fear that I & my doves are equally powerless!——nobody in this house knowing a single member of the Committee. I fancied that Mr Tulk knew Mr Hume [2] & might have some influence,—but he says that he has none whatever—that if he had, he would with pleasure have used it, in the manner suggested. Then, there is Sir William Gosset the Serjeant at Arms & my franker. I dont know him personally—altho’ he is my very obliging franker—having an unlimited power of franking & kindness in using it, & a son who married my first cousin & to whom I send my letters whenever I can find a carrier for them down to Westminster. This son, an amiable person, is at present in Ireland. On his return which must be at the opening of parliament (for he holds office under his father) I will immediately persuade him to persuade Sir William to persuade the Committee to make the “pig go over the style”, which if it be a true pig & no donkey, it is sure to do of its own accord!– You see this is all indirectness, & feebleness!– May you my very dear friend, have friends with a directer influence, & no less affectionate thoughts than mine towards you!—— [3]
I am so grieved to hear of your suffering– Are you not too sedentary?—and will you not lie down a little more & manage the writing in that way?—— Whenever you are so kind as to write again to me, do mention yourself particularly– May God bless you the whole year thro!—— I am writing on the first day of it!– Do receive for yourself & Dr Mitford every kindest wish & thought which must always be seasonable from me to you!—— As for the season, I doubt whether it be Christmas, notwithstanding the mince pies & Sette’s orisons that Papa may buy a twelfth cake [4] with Mr Pickwick at the top of it!– And by the way I must tell you that Sette had made your suggestion of the Pickwick resemblance long before it occurred in your letter!– [5] Sette & Occy are great Pickwickians. “What are you thinking of Occy”?—Occy being in a deep grave reverie, with eyes fixed upon the fire– “Of Mr Pickwick”.
Three times this week has Papa seen dear Mr Kenyon—seen him in his sitting room, & dressed & inclined to talk, & looking, tho’ of course thinner & paler, very much better than Papa had any hope of. He is thinking of going, I believe soon, to Tunbridge Wells for the change of air of a day or two—& this seems to be a prudent plan. Papa told him of your anxious kindness respecting him—and the answer was “I mean to write myself to Miss Mitford very soon”.
Papa met in his room your correspondent Capt. Jones, & was much pleased with him. I was wrong in imagining him to be no intimate friend of Mr Kenyon’s, for such he appears to be!– [6]
How grievous it is that Mr Carey’s name shd be disassociated from the British Musæum! [7] I am very sorry! When you once mentioned that name to me, the sound struck into the midst of a heap of old dusty thoughts of mine, & made an odd confusion, half humourous & half pathetic. You spoke of the venerable Mr Carey!– And I never before had any Mr Carey in my head except “young Carey” who with “young Lister” enacted the Pylades & Orestes of Miss Seward’s Letters. [8] The translator of Dante & Pindar I knew & reverenced well; but as to his personality, I took all that I ever heard of it from Miss Seward; & if it had not been for you, “young Carey” he wd have been to me for ever & ever! Shall I tell you—shall I confess––wont you bid me wear sackcloth for it––that in my childish days & for some days afterwards I have read & re-read Miss Seward’s Letters. They had a charm for me notwithstanding their vanity & elaborateness & bombast; and that charm was from the earnest love of poetic literature with which they are penetrated, & the generous thoughts & feelings which light them up. I can be animal-magnetized thro’ a wall. [9]
Dearest Miss Mitford’s
Ever affectionate
E B Barrett.
Addressed and franked, on integral page: London Jany. four 1838 / Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / nr. Reading / [undecipherable signature].
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 60–63.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by the frank.
2. Joseph Hume (1777–1855), a member of Parliament from 1812 until his death, except for two short breaks, and leader of the radical party for 30 years, “served on more committees of the House of Commons than any other member” (DNB).
3. Miss Mitford was hoping to obtain an increase in her government pension, and was seeking through her friends a means of bringing the matter before the appropriate Parliamentary committee. Sir William Gosset’s son Ralph had married EBB’s cousin Arabella Butler in 1835.
4. A cake made for Twelfth Night, 5 January. It contained a bean, and the person finding it in his piece of cake was named Bean King, to direct the festivities.
5. John Kenyon, when wearing his glasses, was held to resemble Mr. Pickwick. For a sketch of Kenyon by EBB see EBB-MRM, II, facing p. 320.
6. William Jones (?–1846) was a member of the party travelling in France the following summer, Kenyon, Southey and Henry Crabb Robinson being the other members. He was described as “an active, intelligent man, by birth a Welshman, who kept us in good-humor by his half serious, half-jocular zeal for the honor of his countrymen the Welsh” (Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, ed. Thomas Sadler, 1870, II, 266).
7. Henry Francis Cary (1772–1844), a friend of Miss Mitford, had been appointed Assistant Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum in 1826. When the post of Keeper became vacant in 1837, Cary applied for it, but was passed over in favour of Antonio Panizzi (1797–1879). Cary then resigned his post, and devoted himself to literary endeavours. He had published some poetry of his own, together with a translation of Dante; he now undertook editions of various English poets and a series of critical observations on Italian poets.
8. In 1788 Cary had met Thomas Lister, of Armitage Park, Lichfield, another young prodigy. Both were fifteen at the time, and formed a very close friendship, writing poetry together. As EBB indicates, the friendship was mentioned by Anna Seward (1747–1809) in her correspondence (Letters of Anna Seward: Written Between the Years 1784 and 1807, 1811, II, 96–97).
Pylades and Orestes, nephew and son respectively of Agamemnon, are renowned in Homeric legend for their closeness, always linked as are Damon and Pythias, David and Jonathan.
9. “Animal magnetism” (later known as mesmerism) claimed to effect a cure of certain ailments by manipulating the magnetic fluid supposedly contained in the body. EBB was later much intrigued by Harriet Martineau’s assertion that she had overcome an incurable malady by these means.
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