1839. Thomas Carlyle to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 73–74.
Chelsea,
13 feby 1845 (Night)
Dear Browning,
I find I must still trouble you with that unfortunate Field a little. [1] His Note, of no great significance, is full of obscurities; has no address, and one or two other dubieties.
I send you his Copy, and mine taken from his, which still does not make very indisputable sense; I wish you would contrast it with the original, especially in the places which I have marked with an interrogation in pencil.
‘New Hall’ I suppose to be New Hall in Essex, which I have some obscure remembrance of, otherwise, in reference to Cromwell: of course it would be of no use questioning Field on the subject; but I will have a trial made in the County Histories of Essex. ‘Wallop’ may be a money-scrivener; or a man that has got land to sell, which Richard is to buy with the £18,000. ‘Waterhouse’ is evidently the man of business. ‘Burleigh’ is an Estate of Oliver’s not heritably settled on Richard; but whether the big Burleigh House near Stamford (once stormed by Oliver in the early part of his career), or which of the other three or four Burleys, is a question hitherto. [2]
Pray give me your best guess, and the light of your own eyes and mind. Any day; no haste. And above all, thank Field for me, and say (if you can politely) I do not need the ‘view of Newhall,’ nor the viewer of it henceforth! [3] ——
Yours ever truly,
T. Carlyle
Address: R. Browning Esqr / Hatcham, / Surrey.
Docket, in RB’s hand: Feb. 13. ’45.
Publication: Carlyle, 19, 30–31.
Manuscript: Edinburgh University.
1. Henry William Field, of the Royal Mint, was the owner of the letter from Cromwell to his son, Richard, which was published in Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches in 1845 (pp. 405–406).
2. In his annotations to Cromwell’s letter, Carlyle identifies Newhall as “the House and Estate in Essex which had once belonged to the great Duke of Buckingham”; and of Burleigh, Carlyle said: “Burleigh I guess to be Burleigh House near Stamford, which Oliver in the beginning of his military services had known well: he took it by assault in 1643” (p. 406). Carlyle did not identify “Mr. Wallop” or “Waterhouse.”
3. See the following letter.
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