1604.5. EBB to John Kenyon
Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 8.
[London]
Thursday. [25 April 1844] [1]
Miss Mitford gone! oh Mr Kenyon! Mr Kenyon!—— And I was so sure you wd be here!
You said to me once that I might have asked you to be a subscriber to Miss Willan’s poems [2] —so now, I have the impertinence to ask you to give your name to these of Miss Pyer, [3] a friend of Mr Hunter’s & daughter of an Independent minister. I do not answer for the inspiration of them .. mind, .. only for your kindness in the matter.
Affectionately yours always
EBB.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Date provided by EBB’s reference to Miss Mitford’s visit on 25 April 1844 (see letter 1605).
2. Rhoda Maria Willan (b. 1823), daughter of the Rev. Edward Markham Willan and his wife Harriet (née Dixon). In the preface of The Flower Girl, and Other Poems (1843), dated 14 Grafton Street, 6 April 1843, she writes: “I cannot express my thanks too warmly for the generous patronage I have already received in so distinguished a List of Subscribers, and especially for the kindness and encouragement I have met with from many whose names stand high in the Literature of England.” EBB’s name is included in the list.
3. Catherine Charlotte Pyer (b. 1814), daughter of the Rev. John Pyer (1790–1859), Independent Minister, of Mount Street and Wycliffe Chapels, Devonport, and his wife Mary (née Smith). In 1862 she married Benjamin Russell. Kenyon gave his name to her list which appears in Wild Flowers, or Poetic Gleanings from Natural Objects (1844), as did both EBB and Miss Mitford.
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