1363. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 296–297.
[London]
Tuesday Night Aug 29th 1843
I cant find any genteel paper so I tore half off a note of Sir George Cockburn’s [1] who gave me a sitting to day for a sketch[;] as I sketch all extraordinaries I shall sketch you bye & bye– Southall Green & Osterly are the (Norwood Green), [2] are the very heart[’]s core of pic-nics– We pic-nicked in a Corn field reapers & sheavers at work & sucked in the air, till I was tipsey– Is it not odd I cant work with half my energy now Mary’s face is gone– I do believe my boys love their Mother better than any Girl they ever saw—they go on kissing her, so I am obliged to seize them by the Collar & send them about their business– Fred came ashore & rattled down on Sunday, and after we had bid them good night—I missed the rascal in the dark & he was gone back to have another kiss—ought I not to be jealous? I caught him, & chased him away– I have more wind than any of the dogs & can jump higher, & run longer– I fear for Alexander[.] I am in an exquisite stretch legging humour– I lie along, & hope to go on stretching like Milton’s death– [3] A Black Cat came into the House last Night[.] That’s luck mind I predict it!– God bless you[.] When will you roll up & see Alexander?–
B R Haydon
Address: Miss B. Barrett / 50. Wimpole St.
Publication: EBB-BRH, p. 142.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. Admiral Sir George Cockburn (1772–1853) had commanded a squadron harrying U.S. ships in the Chesapeake in the War of 1812. In 1815, he commanded H.M.S. Northumberland, conveying Napoleon to St. Helena. Sir George sat for Haydon again on 31 August and 1 September, when Haydon questioned him about Napoleon (see Pope, V, 304–307).
2. Osterley, rebuilt by Robert Adam, was the seat of the Earl of Jersey. Situated in parkland, it was close to the village where Haydon’s wife and daughter were staying. Norwood Green, some 20 acres in the village of Norwood, bordered Osterley Park.
3. In his later years, Milton suffered from gout, which often caused him great discomfort. To a visitor “He exprest Himself of This Purpose; that was he Free from the Pain This gave him, his Blindness would be Tolerable” (Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton’s Paradise Lost. With a Life of the Author, by Jonathan Richardson, 1734, pp. iv–v).
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