1361. Richard Hengist Horne to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 294–295.
38 Finsbury Sq [1]
August 27/43
In the first place my dear Miss Barrett be so good as note down the address at the tip-top of this paper; for although at this moment I am at Brighton I may be at Shoreham in a day or two, or elsewhere soon after—still all letters are quickly forwarded after me, and I have found that a fixed address was the best means of hitting my migratory habits—or those rather of my mother, who has many fits of change to which her nervous system is unfortunately liable. I did not tell you one hundredth part of all I intended as to my visit to Miss Mitford, for the fact was this ‘certain work’ I took down there to do I scarcely touched—the people, and the place, and the weather, all uniting delightfully to carry me out of the region of penmanship. I was therefore obliged to work against time on my return.
Pray let me know how you are this weather, for it has been so very fine—so unlike English weather—that I cannot but fancy you must have been out in the air many a time. I often think when it is very fine if you are out—and when it is not fine, then I say to myself ‘I would she were in the South of France’—not meaning that you shd not be here also, at the same time, and I cannot help thinking———
Miss Mitford read to me—and with what a melodious feeling she reads poetry—your ‘House of Clouds.’ I did not know of it before. I thought it very beautiful. You might have told me there was such a thing in the world. Miss Mitford thought it your best production– I, one of them.
Yours truly
H
Miss Mitford’s dog is certainly one of the most benevolent-faced of all 4-footed creatures I ever saw. I have seen many less so in a London omnibus,—with 2 legs I mean. He is the father of your dog that eats turtle and custard, is he not?
Address: Miss E. B. Barrett / 50 Wimpole St / Cavendish Sq / London.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Horne wrote this letter in Brighton, but 38 Finsbury Square was a London address.
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