700. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 165–168.
[Torquay]
Monday. June 17th [1839] [1]
My beloved & kindest friend,
I have received your parcel & recovered my temper at its being withheld from me until today by those most impertinent dear people in Wimpole Street. Papa was half frightened lest your Messrs Finden shd slay me with their speculative Beauties male & female—but he has quite got over that, and only prescribes that I content myself with looking at the engraving till the poetry comes of itself. [2] So pray for me to some gracious Muse, or “let the sisters be brought & the harps” [3] if Mr Tennyson can spare them,—for without inspiration, dearest Papa’s plan for making a poem will scarcely be found practicable. But dont be afraid for the ballad, nor for me, nor for Papa. We shall agree together very well. He is not afraid now, but likes me to do it for you,—and as to me, if any other cause except the good of the book (your good as editress) had prevented my being with you this year, I shd quite have taken it to heart. I shd indeed. I am shut out from many things and persons dear to me,—& please myself by being near you in the Tableaux still. The ballad shall be done as well as I can–
You interest me (how well you know the art of interesting!) by all you say of Miss Anderdon. Will you express to her from me how she has obliged me by her kind & flattering present—that is to be .. and by admitting me to a knowledge of her secret. [4] Some day I hope to have a friend’s right to it. In the meantime I am very sorry that there was no room for her flowers among yours.
Is not her mother the Mrs Anderdon of Belford Regis? [5] And was I not promised a visit from both of them when my miserable removal from home became necessary?
What am I to do about Mr Naylor? Shd I write my thanks to him? [6] And if so, where? Could a note pass thro’ your hands?
Do let me hear about the Scarlatina. It makes me quite uneasy that you shd be exposed to such an evil—and Dr Mitford. Do let me hear before very long.
Did your spirit walk Wimpole Street in magnetic separation from the body, a few days since? Arabel declares to me that you called there, & asked for a book. There cd have been no clairvoyance on her side, at any rate.
I hear of Mr Kenyon’s having given an immense party the other evening—a desert full of lions & lionesses, among whom Mr Charles Dickens stood rampant. My brother was “there to see”. [7]
By the way—talking of brothers—I mean to make an extract of your legal admirations [8] and send them to my brother George who begins his circuits next year as a barrister!! I shall be curious to observe how his enthusiasm for his profession, which actually set him down to read Coke [9] among this exquisite scenery, when he came down with me last year, & his very high esteem for your opinions will bear up under the infliction. Oh yes! I must. I have a malignity about the law, & a particular pleasure in teazing him about it. I am always teazing him about it, & telling him that in time he will be worth an old bit of parchment, ready to be made a will but not made yet. And he, dear fellow, laughs very goodhumourdly, & goes on sitting up night after night, & sitting in chambers day after day––just as if he liked it—& I cant believe that anybody really can. He is too good for the woolsack [10] & you shd give him a seat in your summerhouse. Well! I wont abuse his tastes any more today– He cares for mine, & sent me in the winter Barry Cornwall’s Ben Jonson. [11] By the way, Ben says somewhere that there is no difference between law & poetry,––“it is all reading & writing”.
I meant to have written six words. It is always so.
May success attend your applications my dearest Miss Mitford to the Landors Procters & Talfourds, [12] but I shall suffer for it—they will extinguish my “brief candle.” [13] I tremble for my ballad & me. You will however be kind to us as usual—much too kind—there is the only danger!–
It wont be encouraging to you if I say what is in my head: it will prove how one kind act leads me to exact—no, not to exact—but to expect—(that isnt it either)—to wish for another. But I cant help saying it notwithstanding. Was Miss Anderdon the sketcher of your house at Three Mile Cross? You mentioned a sketch of it, being extant. Or does she ever sketch from nature? And would she, if you asked her, do a little slight sketch of it for me? Would she do it for your sake, for me? Or ought’nt I to ask such a thing? If I ought’nt, say nothing about it, & try to forget my intention of being impertinent. But otherwise, I should thank her so very very much, & you too; & have such delight in looking at it—particularly if there were a sight in it of your window. But really I do feel ashamed (to do myself justice) of having written all this. I believe you must forget it & say nothing about it after all.
I am an ungrateful person. I began this note which is a letter, just to acknowledge the engraving, & to thank you again & again for your present to Wimpole Street—and not a word of thanking said yet!! Arabel begged me to tell you how much she was sensible of your kindness—and as to the boys, they are in ecstasies. I thank you for them & for myself. Dearest ever dearest Miss Mitford your kindness to them most nearly touches me. Let me hear of the scarlatina.
Your attached
E B Barrett.
I never saw Dr Parr, but Mr Barker his Boswell—no! a far more admirable man than Boswell—was a correspondent of mine at one time, & I have heaps of his valuable letters written in red & black ink within & without. I did not know him personally. I mean the author of the Parriana, & a most multifarious editor, & one of the most learned men, particularly in Latin matters, in England. You may have seen the notice of his death in the Athenæum. [14] I was very sorry,—& grieved at the allusion to some unhappiness as to his circumstances. Another time I will tell you more about him.
With regard to Dr Parr, his greatest point of originality lay in his wig. But there was powerful ponderous, uninspired eloquence about his latinity.
I am going on well in this lovely weather. May God preserve you! The Wimpole St plans are unarranged up to this moment– Is the life of Mrs Hemans done well? [15] I have not seen it yet.
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 132–135.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by the reference to Barker’s death.
2. i.e., the illustration (reproduced facing p. 193) that was to be the basis of “The Legend of the Browne Rosarie.”
3. EBB is apparently modifying a quotation; the reference in some way relates to Tennyson’s method of composition.
4. The “secret” was Lucy Anderdon’s anonymous authorship of Costanza of Mistra, a copy of which she was sending to EBB (see letter 706).
5. A note at the end of “Mark Bridgman” in Belford Regis says “Mrs. Anderdon, whom I have the honour and pleasure of counting amongst my friends, will chide me for putting her name in a book.... she must forgive me, for the temptation was too great to be withstood. If she does not like to be talked about, she should not paint so well.”
6. For the inscribed copy he had sent EBB of his just-published poem, Ceracchi, a Drama (see Reconstruction, A1722). EBB mentions writing her thanks to him in letter 703.
7. The dinner party was given on 11 June, and the American statesman, Daniel Webster, was one of the guests. In a letter to Charles E. Thomas he reported meeting Dickens: “Boz looks as if he were twenty-five or twenty-six years old, is somewhat older, rather small, light complexion, and a good deal of hair, shows none of his peculiar humor in conversation, and is rather shy and retiring” (Life of Daniel Webster, II, 8, by George Ticknor Curtis). For Sam’s account of the dinner party, see SD1009.
8. EBB had quoted Miss Mitford on the subject of the law in letter 679.
9. Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634), judge and eminent legal author, had conducted the prosecution of Essex, Southampton, and Raleigh. His Reports had great influence on the legal profession.
10. See letter 679, note 4.
11. See letter 679, note 2.
12. i.e., to solicit contributions to Findens’ Tableaux.
13. Macbeth, V, 5, 23.
14. The issue of 30 March 1839 (no. 596, pp. 243–244) said “Mr. Barker, of Thetford … is also dead.... His death occurred after a short illness, which was unknown to his friends, and was not unattended, it is feared, by privations.... it was a principle of his life, frequently expressed, never to quarrel with any one.” He had died on 21 March. See also letter 693, note 11. Samuel Parr (1747–1825), pedagogue and classical scholar, was the subject of Barker’s book, Parriana; or, Notices of the Rev. Samuel Parr (2 vols., 1828–29; see Reconstruction, A1816).
15. The Works of Mrs. Hemans, With a Memoir by her Sister [Mrs. Harriet Hughes, née Browne] (1839).
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