Correspondence

5516. RB to Esther Levy Bensusan

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 196.

19. Warwick Cresct

Upper Westb. Terr. W

Dec 31. ’64.

Dear Mrs Bensusan, [1]

I am very grateful for your letter and believe in all your goodness. The first Tuesday that finds me at liberty shall also find me at your house. Meantime here is the proof of the photograph just received [2] —whether good or no you can judge better than I. If I get a better (there are two decidedly worse) you shall have it & welcome.

And now—prepare yourself! So, you never wrote to me from Leighton Buzzard? [3] Study the postmark on the envelope which I return you! It reached this place a few days before I did. Come, let us forgive each others’ mistakes—and always know me for

Yours truly & gratefully

Robert Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Louisiana Historical Center.

1. Esther Levy Bensusan (née Bravo, 1812–69), daughter of Joseph Gutteres Bravo and his wife, Rebecca (née Aguilar), both of Jamaica. At London, in 1835, she married Abraham Levy Bensusan (1797–1887). She is listed in RB’s address book of this period (AB-5) at Harewood House, Gloucester Place, Marylebone Road.

2. Presumably one of the six photographs taken in December 1864 by the London Stereoscopic Company. These photographs are reproduced facing pp. 208 and 209.

3. In Bedfordshire, about 10 miles N.W. of Luton.

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