1595. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 296–297.
Liverpool
Apr 9 1844
My dearest Friend /
Gower was yours I presented it to you.– [1] I return it pray honor it–
Do let us see the Sonnett[.] [2] I have not heard from the Poet—lately–
I conclude Saturday after a most brilliant Course– You must [know] I was mainly instrumental in founding a School of Design here—& made the figure as at Lyons—the basis—when I was gone my principle & the Lyons school principle, being in opposition to the Monopoly in London, was abolished[.] The Young Men were so convinced of the soundness of my views—they re-assembled privately—subscribed, & continued on the principle I had taught them—they have brought me their drawings—& they are capital[.] This is like the early Christians—persecution is the root of successful reform—and all over the Country they are doing the same–
Is it not glorious?– I defy the Infernal Spirit of Monopoly wherever I meet its selfish Sneer!– I[’]ll give it a tint of persecution—& that will do more than all my preaching–
Have you seen Napoleon’s opinions in Council? translated by Capt[.] B Hall [3] —also, Memoirs du Consulat! [4] —capital Capital—how I enjoy Napoleon, what a singular composition of enormous Genius; paltry weakness; magnificent extension of view, & pettiness of principle yet he kept his oath & never sacrificed a village of the Empire from Hamburgh to Paris, & he died like a Hero on a Rock, because he would’nt—“Decidunt Turres[.]” [5] It is that noble singleness of moral firmness—that endears his Memory to me—though I glory the Duke beat him–
B R Haydon
Get United Service Journal of February & see B.R.H. defence of Waterloo [6] —Lord Fitzroy told me it was the strongest thing he had seen. [7]
Address, on cover sheet: Miss B. Barrett / 50. Wimpole St / London.
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 174–175.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. See letter 1528, endorsed “Gower” by Haydon.
2. EBB had made some changes to the text of her sonnet on Haydon’s portrait of Wordsworth, prior to republication in Poems (1844). For the original version, see letter 1026, note 2.
3. Napoleon in Council, Basil Hall’s translation of a work by Jean Jacques Germain Pelet, Baron de la Lozère, was published in 1837.
4. Mémoires sur le Consulat, 1799 à 1804 (1827), by Antoine Claire Thibaudeau (1765–1854).
5. “Towers fall” (Horace, Odes, II, x, 11).
6. It had been suggested that Wellington’s victory at Waterloo was more a matter of luck than skill. A letter from Haydon, dated 15 January 1844, extolling Wellington’s strategy, appeared in Colburn’s United Service Magazine, February 1844, pp. 279–281.
7. Lord Fitzroy James Henry Somerset (1788–1855), later (1852) 1st Baron Raglan, was Wellington’s military secretary. He was present at all the major campaigns in the Peninsula, and lost an arm at Waterloo.
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