1218. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 86.

London

Apr 22 1843

My dearest Friend /

I send you the Urn, out of which Apollo would be proud to drink tea with the Nine! [1] ——and I promise thee if thou canst on thy sacred poetical word assure me thou hast bonâ fide had the Servant to heat the very Iron, put the boiling water into the very Urn—& made your tea from the very Urn & drank it legitimately—& no mistake that thy poetical name shall be the first on the very next inscription—on the other side–

I have been to see a dear old Friend to day, Smirke [2] —more than 90 years old—he who encouraged me when Northcote depressed me 39 years ago– [3]

He was delighted & has promised to come & see the Cartoons—he said I had the same face—as at 18 but my head was bald & my hair grey–

I have finished up to 1810 the end of my Memoirs——

I will send you some journals in a day or two, wherein there is nothing which might offend your Mind–

Adieu—I have been all day out flying about—I think I have sold Curtius, as a Draper sells broad cloth—what is the price—5–5 Sir—I[’]ll give £2.10—& no more—you shant have it– I wont go beyond £3.10[.] Well Sir, I suppose I must take it—oh this beastly Commercial Spirit!

B R Haydon

Miss B. Barrett.

Address: Miss B. Barrett / 50– Wimpole St.

Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 84–85.

Manuscript: University of Vermont.

1. i.e., the Muses.

2. Robert Smirke (1752–1845) was elected to the Royal Academy in 1793, but George III refused to confirm his nomination as Keeper in 1804, probably because of Smirke’s revolutionary opinions. Many of his paintings were illustrative of works such as the Bible, Shakespeare’s plays, The Arabian Nights and Don Quixote.

3. In 1804, James Northcote had forecast starvation for Haydon as a historical painter (see letter 1119, note 2).

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