849. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 123–124.
[Torquay]
August 31. 1831 [sic, for 1841]
Thank you my ever dear friend, with almost my last breath at Torquay, for your kindness about the Gregory, [1] besides the kind note itself. It is however too late. We go or mean at present to go, tomorrow—and the carriage which is to waft us through the air upon a thousand springs, has actually arrived. You are not to think severely upon Dr Scully’s candour with me, as to the danger of the journey. He does think it “likely to do me harm” & therefore, you know, he was justified by his medical responsibility, in laying before me all possible consequences. I have considered them all, & dare them gladly & gratefully. Papa’s domestic comfort is broken up by the separation in his family—and the associations of this place, lie upon me, struggle as I may, like the oppression of a perpetual night-mare. It is an instinct of self-preservation which impels me to escape—or to try to escape. And in God’s mercy,—though God forbid that I shd deny either His mercy or His justice, if He shd deny me,—we may be together in Wimpole Street, in a few days. Nelly Bordman has kindly written to me Mr Jago’s [2] very favorable opinion of the patent carriages, & his conviction of my accomplishing the journey without inconvenience.
May God bless you, my dear dear friend! Give our love to dearest Annie! Perhaps if I am ever really in Wimpole Street, safe enough for Greek, you will trust the poems to me, which you mention. I care as much for poetry as ever, and could not more.
Your affectionate & grateful
Elizabeth B Barrett.
Address: H S Boyd / Downshire Hill / Hampstead / London.
Publication: LEBB, I, 89–90.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. EBB had mentioned Boyd’s “great Gregory” in letter 846 and he had apparently offered to lend the book to her; he later gave it to her (see Reconstruction, A1093).
2. Dr. Francis Robert Jago (d. 1862) later attended EBB professionally. Miss Bordman, whom he married in 1848, was now an orphan, living in his house as his de facto ward.
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