1246. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 128–129.
London
May 16th 1843.
My dearest Friend /
Mary will have done with the first Volume and you shall have it today– I put one note in pencil—my letter to Wilkie on my marriage morn which Cunningham ought to have published—
Harrow on the Hill
Oct. 20. 1821
My dear Wilkie /
When I swore to “die a Batchelor I did not think I should ever live to be a married Man” which I have the inexpressible delight of telling you I became this morning–
Yours ever dear Wilk
B R Haydon
Helen told my Sister [1] —he kept walking about all the day with my letter in his hand, saying—Haydon—married!—dear—dear—Haydon! Married!—really!!
I am hard at work on Alexander & did the arm in a fury yesterday. Is it not a pity that a Man whose whole delight is his Art & family should have any thing else to do?
Thanks My dear Friend for this sympathy, but I do hope she will weather it–
Ever yours
B R Haydon
Miss B Barrett
PS Your Man departed without waiting–
You shall have my memoirs soon—303rd Page– I propose 5/ Volumes one after the other[.] Bentley has answered me & the first move[.]
Speak a good Word– I shall make 400 pages each Vol.
I wish to make a guide Book for Artists—Morally & Mentally– I wish to live in the domestic hearts of my dear Countrymen & Women[.]
At the [Academy] Exhibition yesterday I had a high Court. “Are you the Mr Haydon who painted the Lazarus[”] [2] ––yes Ma’am, I am– Dear me I thought you must be a decrepit old Man— I bowed— Ah it is a wonderful Picture—the head of Lazarus ah it is wonderful, I always said I never saw such a likeness in all my life to old Col. Carnack of the 17 Dragoons! [3] You are a great Painter Mr Haydon indeed you are!–
Address, on integral page: Miss B. Barrett / 50 Wimpole St.
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 97–99.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. Wilkie’s sister Helen, later Mrs. William Hunter, and Haydon’s sister Harriet, Mrs. James Haviland.
2. “The Raising of Lazarus” was first exhibited in 1823, in the Egyptian Hall.
3. Not identified; he was not named in A List of the Officers of the Army (1843).
___________________
