848. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 121–123.
[Torquay]
Monday night– August 30th 1841
My beloved friend,
I have seen our dear Mr Kenyon. I saw him today. It was like waking out of a sleep—and my reality must always have its pain. But I am glad I have seen him, very glad! You were right, as you always are, my dearest Miss Mitford! He was so kind, so very very kind & feeling—and, do you know, I have thrown the “bride cake” simile [1] out of the window. It is’nt true of him at all. It wont do for a simile at all! If he likes to use it literally & bodily—very well—provided we have the consent of one of the two fair mysteries domiceled on the Upper Terrace!– But for a simile, its a villainous bridecake—and the maker of it shd be put to death as a murderous maker. It’s worse than a peppery cheesecake—far! I protest against it!
We could not talk very much, but some of the little was of you, my beloved friend, of course. I told him how I did’nt think Miss Sedgewick meant any harm, or achieved much more than is comprised in the excess of bad taste. But he is strong in disapprobation—& quoted severely the imputed irreverences of the Reading coachman. [2] Oh—but they were not uttered irreverently, nor can be so understood by the majority of readers. Everybody who knows the idiom of a certain class will read that “hearty old boy” into a warm cordial expression of regard. I who lived nearly my whole life long in Herefordshire, have heard it applied a hundred times by the poor to such of the class above them, as they dared to love, heart to heart, without formality. It’s an idiom!–– Well—but we who talked of Miss Sedgewick without quite, altogether, agreeing, could do it heartily & utterly in regard to you!– Dearest friend! It wd be a merit in me to love you as I do, if there were any possibility of doing otherwise!
I enclose under this envelope a collar—a little specimen of the Honiton lace for which Devonshire is famous– You will wear it—will you not?—for my sake. You never, you know, wd eat my cream.
Good night—I am so tired!
Mr Kenyon encourages me in my undertaking, [3] telling me of his “faith in impulses”!– He pretends too to think me looking much better than he expected to see me. But all that may be flattery.
Ever your affectionate &
grateful E B Barrett.
I wd not have written what I did lately, [4] but for your question, & considering the value of your good opinion almost regret having done so now. There are differences of opinion—& certain judges & familiar friends are both in regard to judgement & friendship, more trustworthy on a certain subject than I. Suspend your opinion. The very blindness of affection may feel its way to the right place—& if not—I [5] shd be the last to say that it is not to be prized—I, who have been so overpraised & overloved. Codrington’s panegyric upon Garth is worth all the critics’ scales in the world——
“I read thee over with a lover’s eye—
Thou hast no errors, or I none can spy—
Thou art all beauty, or all blindness I”– [6]
God bless you! Forgive me everything wrong–
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 271–273.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. See letter 834, note 9.
2. For the coachman’s “irreverences,” see letter 834, note 3.
3. i.e., her determination to undertake the risky journey to London.
4. i.e., about Miss Garrow’s poetry, in the previous letter.
5. Underscored twice.
6. Christopher Codrington (1668–1710), sometime Governor of the Leeward Islands, addressed these lines (here slightly misquoted) to Samuel Garth (1661–1719) on the occasion of the publication of The Dispensary (1699).
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