1. Edward Moulton-Barrett (father) to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 1–2.
Ledbury
Tuesday Evening [5 September 1809] [1]
My Dear Puss
I sit down to perform my promise of writing you. I will endeavour to inform you of the whole of our actions since I parted from you; I got to Town safe, and Lockhead and myself dined with Sam, not your Sam, [2] at whose Hotel I slept, the next morning We went to North End, [3] where I prepared myself for my journey; We got that night, namely Saturday, to Woodstock, and the following to Malvern Town, which I meant to have been our head quarters, but we found our accommodations so very indifferent that we determined to remove them to Ledbury, to which place we took Hope-End in our way, and went on that Day nearly round the Estate, after being completely fagged, we set off for Ledbury to a very comfortable Inn; This Morng we again went to Hope-End and compleated our tour of it, besides looking thro’ the center of the Estate and examining the Cottages; We shall go tomorrow to inspect the Timber &c– The more I see of the Property the more I like it and the more I think I shall have it in my power to make yourself, Brother & Sister & dear Mamma happy. [4] There is no fruit whatever this year in the Garden, but should we be fortunate enough to be here next year no doubt we shall have abundance[.] I cant say when I shall have it in my power to return but hope at the expiration of a couple of Days m<ore> to be on my way back, that is ha<ppily> as it may happen. I shall expect [to] see you well without any symtoms of that lurking Cough, and Buff as rosy as ever. My Best love to Mamma tell her, I believe I shall write her before my return also kiss the two other Pusses for me & Grandmamma, and love to Bell & Trep—not forgetting Junius–
My Paper adminishes [sic] me
I am, my Dear Ba [5]
Yr truely affectionate and happy Papa
E M Barrett
Tell that cut-throat Buff that I shall expect him, on my return to repeat Goosy, Goosy Gander &c as well as usual–
Address, on integral page: Miss E. Barrett / Mrs Moulton’s / Mickleham / near Leatherhead / Surrey.
Docket, in Mary Moulton-Barrett’s hand: First letter from her dearest Papa– September 6th 1809 To happy Ba!– Given as the greatest of treasures into dear Grandmammas care. To be returned when her little pet is old enough to feel all the values of the best & most affectionate of Fathers.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Dated on basis of docket and of Edward Moulton-Barrett’s heading “Tuesday Evening.” EBB eventually wrapped this letter in a cover sheet ‘along with letter 322 and labelled the sheet: “From my beloved Papa.” The second letter deals with the death of EBB’s mother. On the inside of the cover sheet, EBB wrote: “One of these letters was addressed & given to ‘happy Ba ’—the other letter, to miserable & bereaved Ba! The writer of one of these letters, the beloved writer, subscribes himself ‘your truly affectionate & happy EMB’– The writer of the other, ‘your attached, however afflicted EMB.’ And yet the same person wrote both letters, & with the same affection, & to the same correspondant. Oh God! not our will! but thy will! Have mercy, oh God—remembering that we are dust! Comfort us oh comforter! Do we not need comfort!”
2. Edward Moulton-Barrett had been staying at his mother’s home at Mickleham, had left there on 1 September, and was writing back to report on his progress. The people remaining there, and mentioned in this letter, included: EBB herself; EBB’s mother, Mary Moulton-Barrett; EBB’s brother Edward (referred to as Buff) and sister Henrietta; Edward Moulton-Barrett’s mother, Elizabeth Moulton (Grandmamma); her companion Mary Trepsack (Trep); her male servant Junius; and Arabella Graham-Clarke (Bell), EBB’s maternal aunt. Lockhead was a distant cousin by marriage. The Sam with whom they dined was Samuel Barrett, Edward Moulton-Barrett’s first cousin, and “your Sam” was Edward Moulton-Barrett’s brother.
3. North End, Hammersmith, was where Edward Moulton-Barrett had taken a house after moving south from Coxhoe Hall, and it was his base while looking for a suitable country estate. His father, Charles Moulton (d. 1819), also lived in the neighbourhood.
4. He did eventually buy the property, and the family moved there a few months after the writing of this letter.
5. There has been much speculation regarding the derivation and pronunciation of this name, by which EBB was known throughout her life. Presumably, one should accept EBB’s own explanation of its origin as being the correct one; in verse VII of her poem “The Pet-Name” (published in The Seraphim, and Other Poems, 1838) she wrote:
“My brother gave that name to me
When we were children twain,
When names acquired baptismally
Were hard to utter, as to see
That life had any pain.”
EBB also said, in a letter to Robert Browning (9 September 1845): “I am never called anything else … proving as Mr. Kenyon says, that I am just ‘half a Ba-by’—no more nor less:—and in fact the name has that precise definition.” This derivation led to the suggestion that the name was pronounced “Bay,” but the written evidence points to “Baa”: a birthday ode (letter 124) rhymes “Ba” with “spar,” and a riddle propounded by Hugh Stuart Boyd (see letters 367 and 368) suggested that EBB’s family were like sheep, always saying “Baa.” Even more conclusive, in our view, is an 1831 inscription in Viger’s Greek Idioms, which EBB signed with the Hebrew character beth and the subscript denoting that it was followed by a long “a” (Reconstruction, A2390).
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