993. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 52–55.
[London]
August 18—1842–
My ever dearest friend,
I apologize to myself not to you when I am long without writing to you—for I see plainly how oppressed & depressed you are by your “Importans” & “importuns” [1] without any help of mine. Yet my silence has not been through consideration for you—it is hard to sacrifice the dear close communion so like companionship into which you had too kindly suffered me to be bewitched!—and my reason for seeming so much more virtuously considerate than usual, is just the delay about the ship-freight, .. my anxiety, in fact, to announce certain little gifts from the land of your love, which linger in some very miraculous manner between the docks & Wimpole Street. In the meanwhile better than shaddock & cocoanut has come to me, in the shape of a letter from you my beloved friend—and I have borne to leave it unreplied to!–
First of all, let me tell you that I am not “naughty” any more, but good—that I have been downstairs into the drawingroom three times, & that I am going—that is, .. meaning to try to go .. out in a wheeled chair along the pavement before our door. Is’nt it good of me? And is’nt it a close imitation of your plan for me about the wheeled chair in a garden?—as close & good an imitation, I mean, as I [2] can perform, of you?–
Flushie was in agonies to see me carried into the drawingroom. He hates the drawingroom. It is Blue Beard’s lockup room to him. [3] He wont go into it for anybody; & if carried in, as I was, he trembles all over & makes a dash at the door by his very first opportunity. But dear faithful loyal Flushie! he wdnt see me taken there without going too! Down he darted after me!—and after an affectionate devouring scene upon the sofa in which I underwent a whole series of condoling kisses, he laid his head upon my shoulder & never left me until I went home again .. upstairs!– But I think that Flushie will approve of the wheeled chair. Even Flushie will!–
My dearest friend, I quite quite agree, just as I told you, that Pen & Ink ought to be better than Needle & Thread, .. to be consistent! We quite & altogether agree upon that point. For the rest, I confess myself inclined to forgive more to Pen & Ink through gratitude than I ever cd to Needle & Thread. And for the rest .. & not to argue any more .. I have the comfortable conviction that however wrong I may be in my Hero worshipping, I cant quite have the worst of it in upholding that “Pagan creed outworn” [4] against you [5] .. seeing that you present an inexorable argument in your example against your doctrine. Do you correct “example”, by “exception”? Well then, it shall be ‘an exception’—and I, .. to present another, .... will not have the last word!——
Talking of creeds reminds me of what you tell me about the imputed extension of the R. Catholic opinions. [6] You heard so from a R. Catholic!—and ever since I can remember anything which is far beyond a P. memory .. the R. Catholics have said the same. There may be an extension in a degree—that is, among those, who have thought slightly & coldly of religion & held slack & indeterminate opinions, until receiving by some chance their first vital impressions of a subject which every man wide awake intellectually, must feel to be vitally important, from R. Catholic teachers—they cast themselves by a very natural emotion into the Christian denomination associated with the Christian feeling. But I do not fear––I do not think, that these opinions will ever make way with individuals who are scripturally instructed & devotional. I believe that the examples of conversions to R. Catholicism from among such, are very rare indeed. And altho’ such do not certainly,—unfortunately,—constitude [sic] the majority, .. yet surely the world, weak as it is, & unwise, does not lean to the sort of weakness & foolishness which wd cast it again under the Pope’s shoe! Do you think so? Or .. do you think that I think (by that word about the Pope’s shoe & the world’s foolishness) illiberally & Ld George-Gordonly about “Popery”? [7] Oh—I hope not!– There have been Christians of that Denomination worthy of all honor .. most blessed & venerable—& I shd lack a common ‘natural piety’ [8] in denying them my respect. But truth is truth—& not even our dear friend now somewhere in Germany, cd persuade me, that even Toleration can be better than Truth. [9]
George has come back from circuit—to our great joy, you may be sure! Mr Serjt Talfourd was so kind as to give him a little book which you have probably seen; “A visit to the Alps” .. printed for private circulation & dedicated to Mrs Talfourd “by her grateful & admiring husband”. [10] It consists of an account of their journey to the Alps last year, & is written with a natural vivacity & feeling for the beautiful which has pleased me. Do tell me if you know it.
The story is, that the queen has discovered a plot against the farther flourishing & well-being of the Prince of Wales, by straying one sad day into the nursery. There, sate the nurse Mrs Lilly, embracing the royal baby .. while both ‘cheered & inebriated’ [11] by the contents of a certain brandy-bottle dearer than royalty. She was sent off instantly—but just in time (within a few days I was told) to lose two hundred a year for life & a commission in the army for her son. [12]
You have never told me what you think, how you feel rather (for surely it is a matter of love & admiration & exaltation) about Tennyson’s poems. Are they not great—divine?
In the meantime poetry does not harmonize the land!– There is a continual cry in the streets of “second editions” “dreadful conflicts between the military & the populace” “shocking burnings of property” & all such horrors as may be said or sung. [13] It makes me half nervous to lie upon Papa’s floor (my habit during these burning broiling days) & hear the bloodthirsty chant along the pavement. And Spittalfields is expected to be up every day, [14] which is comforting! So much for the subjects of congratulation dwelt upon by the queen’s speech. [15] She had better have congratulated Mrs Lilly!–
Goodbye my beloved friend! I wish I had some good news of you & of Dr Mitford—yet do not write so as to weary yrself. A packet will go <***>
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 15–18.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Latin and French words conveying the sense of heavy responsibilities and importunate intruders.
2. Underscored twice.
4. Cf. Wordsworth, “The World is Too Much With Us” (1807), line 10.
5. Underscored three times.
6. A reference to the Oxford Movement. Its opposition to rationalism and emphasis on the restoration and strengthening of traditional doctrines resulted in the growth of Anglo-Catholicism and some conversions to Roman Catholicism—the most prominent convert being one of the movement’s principal figures and authors, John Henry Newman (1801–90), who was received into the Catholic Church in 1845 and later (1879) elevated to the rank of cardinal.
7. Lord George Gordon (1770–1836), later (1827) 5th Duke of Gordon, entered Parliament in 1807 and consistently opposed motions to emancipate the Irish Catholics.
8. Wordsworth, “My Heart Leaps Up” (1807), line 9.
9. The “dear friend” is Kenyon, and EBB refers obliquely to his Rhymed Plea for Tolerance (1833).
10. Talfourd also gave a copy of Recollections of a First Visit to the Alps, in August and September 1841 to RB (now at ABL, see Reconstruction, A2245).
11. Cf. Cowper, The Task, IV, 40.
12. If dismissed, Mrs. Lilly was quickly reinstated; she assisted in the birth and care of Victoria’s later children.
13. The impact of the Corn Laws on the poor was provoking widespread unrest. The Times of 11 August, in a report from Manchester, said “Business here is entirely at a stand still.... Most of the shops are closed, the windows of the factories smashed, and several of the police lockups demolished.” In the issue of 13 August, the paper reported the deaths of two policemen from wounds suffered during rioting. The Anti-Corn Law League was held to be largely responsible for the violence of the protests.
14. Spitalfields, in London’s East End, had been settled by refugee Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and it became a centre for the manufacture of silk and velvet.
15. The Queen’s speech at the Prorogation of Parliament on 12 August contained this passage: “There are, I trust, indications of gradual recovery from that depression which has affected many branches of manufacturing industry, and has exposed large classes of my people to privations and sufferings which have caused me the deepest concern.”
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