2049. EBB to Clementia Taylor

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 11, 104–105.

50 Wimpole Street

October [sic, for September] 30– [1845] [1]

My dear Mrs Taylor,

I feel almost guilty before you for having suffered so many evidences of your kind thoughts of me to pass in silence .. though not disregarded really, & in my heart. The truth is that the past summer has been full of emotion & disquiet to me .. & that I am in an unrest at this moment of which you may judge when I tell you of the possibility .. nay, the probability of my leaving England for either Italy or Madeira before many days .. before a fortnight’s end perhaps. The object is the recovery of my health which is in a good measure recovered always in the warmer weather, & lost again in the cold .. & for the complete reestablishment of which, a very painful effort (such as this is) has assumed the form of a duty.

I cannot however even think of going, (& all is uncertain still) without thanking you for your repeated proofs of interest in me, .. & for the verses which at various times have come to me with such pleasant & graceful testimony of your habits of reflection & sentiment. Such a mind bears fruit for its own use .. & the boughs of it keep a green shadow round its root. May God long bless you with the blessing of thinking & feeling so—while from without, may you have blessing also .. since He blesses out of Heaven & Earth. [2] And may I ask you, dear Mrs Taylor, to remember in some prayer of yours, one who is tried & faint at heart in

Your friend

Elizabeth Barrett Barrett.

I have mislaid your letter with the address—& direct this as another to Charlotte Street. [3]

Address: Mrs P A Taylor, Junr / 5. Charlotte Street / Bedford Square.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection.

1. Dating is clarified by the postmark, 1 October 1845.

2. Cf. Isaiah 65:16.

3. i.e., the address to which EBB had sent letters 1878 and 1879. Mrs. Taylor’s address is given as 8 Powis Place, Queen’s Square in EBB’s address book; see vol. 9, p. 388.

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