1462.3. RB to Richard Hengist Horne

Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 8.

Hatcham,

Tuesday. [Postmark: 19 December 1843]

My dear Horne,

—This to me? Tell me of one eyesore in “the Portrait?” —My list, thank you, begins .. let me see .. with my sister’s beginning at the head only, & leaving the earlier artist’s breast between its artfully-suspended shoulders, like a broad ham over which they hang loosely two German Sausages, this Xtmas time—then [1]

The handkerchief is a misery: I sit or stand three quarters of nearly every day of my life with unhaltered neck, as in the original—and yet begged my hardest for a stock lest [2] I should fall into the condemnation you expect—but the Engraver could not manage it.

—They tell me the lips are amiss .. I don’t know.

Shall I go to Powell, or the Engraver? I will see Powell.

Yours faithfully,

R Browning.

Address: R. H. Horne, Esq. / 38 Finsbury Square.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. A quarter of a page has been left blank at this point, possibly to emphasize the remarks that follow.

2. Underscored three times.

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