149. Mary Moulton-Barrett to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 146–148.
[Hope End]
Jany 2d 1822
Minny arrived last night in so much better cue than from the last visit she paid my beloved Ba that it did me infinite good to see her smiling face when she came down to make her report arrayed in Hentts smart blue cap, the new years gift! How did my head follow every line of dearest Papa’s kind letter, thanks to him for his great kindness in writing to me thus fully. The turkey went down with bon apetit, yesterday, & our president insisted on various toasts—of which in some shape or other you formed the essence & those around you, & the three times three with Henrys voice not least audible, gives me the head ache to remember– We did all we could to be gay last night, but new years night wanted its inspiriting coadjutors, you & Papa, & seemed to me more gloomy than the every-day evenings, which suggest their regular occupations– When those we best love are not near, the heart is most at ease when nothing occurs to excite its sympathies, or note of time to call up recollections!– We breakfasted this morning on Minny’s New Years offering of Gloucester Cakes, & then Bro wrote his Virgil, Sam & Stormy their Latin, & Hentta & I, had I hope a profitable research into all our thorough bass lessons learnt at Logiers, [1] & ended with the duetts, which she really plays very nicely– At twelve o’clock, she was transformed into Diana with her bow slung across her shoulders, & went out with Bro, Sam, & Stormy, on some fanciful chase over the hills, which look more like Summer now than they have done since August— The rest of our business is to be finished when this short day begins to close—& we shall draw & read in the evengs tho’ how to assimilate our reading to the various comprehensions of our audience is not easy– Parks travels [2] I proposed this morng but was overruled by an unanimous preference of one of dear Miss E’s. Moral tales, [3] as being within the reach of all! I do not enter into the detail of the Harford visit yesterday, as I conclude it to be Bro’s & Hentta profit. My confirmation however may be acceptable of the cleanly healthy state of the family, (tho’ crimson cheeks will turn blue), the royal Carolines thriving state, & likeness to Ellen, Mrs H’s abundant loves to you, & her bounty to us in showers of nuts & walnuts. She drank yr health in a glass of ale, with all her heart & soul!– They were all dressed in your gifts; the slip fits Ellen nicely– So the Browns & Cotterel [4] still preserve their locks! Perhaps to be clipped after the Christmas Wasseling, before the school meets on Monday.
God bless my beloved Ba, &
all around her!——
I have heard or read somewhere that “Celestina,” & “Julia Mandeville” [5] are superior to the common run of novels——
Address, on integral page: S. M. Barrett Esqr MP. / Spa Hotel / Gloucester. Mary Moulton-Barrett used a cover sheet from another letter as stationery. It was addressed to her at Hope End by an unidentified correspondent.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. John Bernard Logier (1777–1846) had invented a machine called chiroplast, designed to facilitate the correct positioning of the hands on the pianoforte, and devised the system of music teaching known by his name.
2. Mungo Park (1771–1801), surgeon, traveller, author, and a friend of Sir Walter Scott, was famous for his Travels in the Interior of Africa (1799), an account of an exploration along the River Niger.
3. Moral Tales for Young People, published in five volumes in 1801, by Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849).
4. Mrs. Brown, a widow, had five daughters at home (see letter 132). “Cotterel” is taken to refer to one of the children of Sir John Cotterell, who lived at Garnons, Herefordshire.
5. Celestina, by Charlotte Smith, and The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, by Frances Moore.
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