Correspondence

1556.  Mary Russell Mitford to EBB

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 236.

Three Mile Cross,

Feb. 28, 1844.

<***> Charles Kingsley [1] spoke during two hours and twenty minutes—with such earnestness! such conviction! such passion! such beauty! There is nothing like real high eloquence. It is poetry living and breathing, and carrying you on like a torrent, in its magnificent course. Oh, how I longed for you! There was nothing to frighten anybody. Of course the principles were large and general; but the whole address was most conciliatory. It was power in all its gentleness. He is a very great man.

Ever yours,

M.R.M.

Text: L’Estrange (2), III, 180–181.

1. Charles Kingsley (1819–75) was ordained in 1842 and became Curate (and, in May 1844, Rector) of Eversley, a few miles S.E. of Three Mile Cross. He later became a prolific author, his works including Alton Locke (1850), Westward Ho! (1855) and The Water Babies (1863).

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