1491. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 141–143.
[London]
Jany. 6. 1844.
My dearest friend I scarcely know whether I should or shd not write to you when it must be equally bad for you to write or read,—but I cant bear to think of your suffering in your eyes or elsewhere, without some sign of sympathy from me. It is a terrible sort of suffering,—& shuts you out from the consolations of ordinary maladies,—& I am so very very sorry that you shd be tried by it!– As for me, I am justified, by being well again. My voice is come back too—and although in walking I feel some accession of weakness, in general respects I am not the worse for my little “crook in the lot.” [1] The loveliness of the weather is supernatural & has done much for me, if not everything. For three days, there was a threatening of cold & some actual snow; but yesterday & today, the very possibility of fires seems to have receded before the reality of May. I cant bear a fire in this room, & talk of having the door left open “for air”: while my letters from Paris show our relatives there in wailing & gnashing of teeth from intolerable frost & impenetrable fog, .. & calculating that they “might as well have been in England.” [2] Might as well! Yes—and a good deal better besides. Assuredly the last two winters have been extraordinary for mildness; and, for my part, in enumerating climates, I say Madeira .. London .. Nice. The warmth of the houses is an advantage—but that this shd be the second winter, on which a fire has become intolerable for several successive days, .. remains a remarkable fact, dependent of course upon the state of the external atmosphere, & which I cannot match “in all my experience.” My beloved friend, I send you my love in the shells of oysters. Believe that I think of you many & many times a day, & always with such thoughts as you may guess.
Mr Westwood has just published another book of poems, & sent it to me; but I have not cut a leaf of it yet. He speaks very very modestly of his powers & deeds; [3] & I earnestly hope that he may not gather disappointment on the same ground with (I do not doubt) many graceful fancies—for he has a musical ear & much poetical sensibility.
So you have not seen the [“]Song of the Shirt” even now? My dearest friend, I thought you received regularly the Athenæum—and the song was extracted at full length in the Athenæum a few weeks since. I will get a Punch for you, if possible. [4] You must certainly, certainly see it.
Tell me how Miss Walters is when you write—but dont write too soon so as to injure your eyes. I am doing pretty nearly as much harm as I can, in making you read.
Mr Hunter is coming to lodgings in town immediately, where he is to give four lessons a week to a pupil, & receive a hundred guineas a year. He pays above sixty guineas for the lodgings—(a very dear rent as I have tried in vain to make him perceive): & unless he contrives to secure other pupils, the prospect is a cloudy one. Mary remains at school at Brighton by her own desire.
May God bless you, my dearest friend. The thought of your eyes pricks my memory, & wont suffer me to write any more.
That I love you truly believe
ever of your
EBB–
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 368–369.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Originally published under the title The Sovereignty and Wisdom of God Displayed in the Afflictions of Men (1732), the prefix The Crook in the Lot was added to the 1805 edition. It was by Thomas Boston (1677–1732).
2. Mr. and Mrs. Hedley, Miss Graham-Clarke and Charlotte (“Arlette”) Butler were wintering in Paris (see letter 1372).
3. Beads from a Rosary, promised in letter 1484 and acknowledged in letter 1485.
4. Hood’s “Song of the Shirt” was published anonymously in the December issue of Punch and reprinted in The Athenæum of 16 December.
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