1770. EBB to Cornelius Mathews
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 242–243.
[London]
[late November 1844] [1]
As to Flush, I thank you for him; for being glad that he has not “arrived at the age of gravity and baldness,” and I can assure you of the fact of his not being yet four years old, [2] (the very prime of his life,) and of his having lost no zest for the pleasures of the world—such as eating sponge-cake and drinking coffee a la creme. He lies by me on the sofa, where I lie and write; he lies quite at ease between the velvet of my gown and the fur of my couvre-pied, [3] and has no wicked dreams, I can answer for it, of a hare out of breath, or of a partridge shot through the whirring wing; if he sees a ghost at all, it is of a little mouse which he killed once by accident. He is as innocent as the first dog, when Eve patted him. I had a visit the other day from Mrs. Jameson, and was delighted with her, of course. She is one of those fervid admirers of your America, who constitute, in fact, the flower of our England. Harriet Martineau’s mesmeric experience (and she, by the way, is another instance) is making a great noise and sensation here, and producing some vexation among her unbelieving friends. It was, however, worthy of herself, having, according to her own belief, received a great benefit from means not only questionable, but questioned, to come forward bravely and avouch the truth of it. Do you believe at all? I do, but it is in the highest degree repulsive to me as a subject, and suggestive of horror. It is making great way in England, and, as far as I can understand, is disputed more by the unlearned than by the learned. Let me hear from you—I am, most gratefully, your friend.
Text: Thomas Powell, The Living Authors of England (New York, 1849), p. 148.
1. Dated by reference to Mrs. Jameson’s visit on Saturday, 23 November.
2. The exact date of Flush’s birth is not known, but it must have been sometime between May and September 1841, since he was sent by coach from Three Mile Cross to Torquay on 6 or 7 January 1841 and was four or eight months old when he arrived (see letter 1118).
3. “Coverlet.”
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