1424. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 31–33.
London
Nov 4 1843
My dear Invisible /
The sight of thy Poetic, delicate, mysterious handwriting was a comfort– I thought you had got tired or perhaps angry, because I did not follow your advice! but I find I was silent & not you, & so accept the Amende–
You asked me if I had known attachment to Dogs?—indeed have I, before I had children, since, never.
I had once a thorough bred Newfoundland Pup, who got the Distemper & when he was lying blind, & moaning near Death—on hearing my Voice rose from his bed, staggered over on his trembling legs, swinging to & fro from weakness, licked my feet, guided by my Voice, trembling, staggered back, & Died wagging his tail, & moaning affection– When my sweet Fanny an Infant was dying [1] —I said Fanny my love, d[’]ye love Papa? convulsed as she was she stared towards me, & died, smiling devotion! so far, there was not much difference in feeling, for My Sweet Fanny had hardly reason, so young[.] Perhaps the Animal had as much so far—the difference would have been in maturity–
I was so affected I did not recover [from] it– I afterwards kept Grey hounds Dr Mitford gave me but they are callous brutes—graceful & heartless– [2]
I supped out last night, a meal I hate, with artists, & brutes connected with Punch!—what a scene!—a Youth with a beard told me, my defence of the English School & attack on the German last year, was translated into German at Vienna & made a great noise at Munich—it did good he said, & put them on the defensive about line, & mediævalism– [3]
Rumohr, the first of Critics is dead– I corresponded for the last year of his life—and his letters are invaluable. [4]
As I have more Vanity than Pride, they say—I was pleased you liked the Sketch—it is interesting to me—poor Wilkie—how intimate we were, then!– We got a party of the 10th & opened the great Barrow by the Church on the Hill, under the direction of poor Douglas[,] Author of Nenia Brittannica, a living Vicar of Wakefield [5] —& we found as he said An Ancient British Urn, with the burnt bones of a Chief, the most ancient mode of Burial—in the Race ground we opened graves, & found Skeletons lying east & West, after Christianity[.] Douglas was a perfect Original, & never surpassed–
His theory was Urn burial on Hills was before Iron—I said here’s Iron– O God I hope not said he, & in he jumped & to his delight, found it brass– People of Fashion crowded about me, & began to steal relics!—Douglas jumped into the grave, & with his hat off, & his grey hairs moving to the Sea breeze held forth on the wickedness of disturbing the ashes of the Dead, after he had ascertained, there was no Iron—& had tumbled about the Ashes in style!—never shall I forget the scene–
He invited us to Breakfast (at Preston when he was Vicar), with Prince Hoare, [6] I knew the man & Breakfasted before I went & made Wilkie do the same—When we all three met– Douglas was not up[.] Breakfast was not laid—no fire in the Kitchen– Poor Hoare looked faint & g[h]astly—at last we heard a flump out of bed, & suddenly Douglas called out—“Betty where is my other Stocking?[”]—which put Wilkie in such laughter, Hoare forgot his troubles—after 1 hour & ½—We got a good Breakfast & a learned discourse– Douglas was the granary for all Colt Hoare’s Book. [7] What are you going to bring out?
Yours ever & ever
B R Haydon
Miss B B—
Address: Miss B. Barrett / 50. Wimpole St.
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 155–157.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. Haydon’s daughter, born 6 March 1829, died 18 November 1831.
2. Haydon had previously mentioned these in letter 1162, but as Miss Mitford’s gift.
3. Haydon recorded in his diary: “Supped out, with Kidd, Kenny Meadows, at a kind Friend’s. Several Artists—one from Munich, who told me my attack on the German School in the Spectator last year had been translated at Vienna & made a great noise at Munich—it was thought impudent, but it did good; they could not defend line, which they labored hard to excuse” (Pope, V, 323). Haydon’s “attack” appeared in The Spectator of 12 November and 3 December 1842 (pp. 1099–1100 and 1170).
4. Haydon had sent EBB a sketch of Baron Rumohr with letter 1260.
5. Haydon referred to Douglas and his theory of urn burial in his diary entry of 30 October 1815 (Pope, I, 478). James Douglas (1753–1819), a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, took holy orders in 1780 and in his last years was incumbent of Preston, Sussex. He wrote a number of works on antiquities, including Nenia Britannica (1793), containing descriptions of several hundred ancient places of interment opened under his personal supervision. Goldsmith, in an advertisement for The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), described the vicar as “simple in affluence and majestic in adversity.”
6. Prince Hoare (1755–1834), artist and dramatist, first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1781 and was the author of several plays, the best-known being No Song, No Supper, performed at Drury Lane in 1790.
7. Richard Colt Hoare (1758–1838), historian, was the author of The Ancient History of North and South Wiltshire (1812–21).
___________________
