1874. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 139–141.
[London]
[Postmark: 29 March 1845]
My dearest Mr Boyd[,] As Arabel has written out for you the glorification of ‘Peter of York,’ [1] I shall use an edge of the same paper to “pall on your sense” [2] with my gratitude about the Cyprus wine. Indeed I could almost upbraid you for sending me another bottle. It is most supererogatory kindness in you to think of such a thing. And I accept it, nevertheless, with thanks instead of remonstrances, & promise you to drink your health in & the spring in together, .. & the east wind out, if you do not object to it. I have been better for several days—but my heart is not yet very orderly, .. not being able to recover the reins, I suppose, all in a moment–
For the rest, you always mean what is right & affectionate, & I am not apt to mistake your meanings in this respect. Be indulgent to me as far as you can, when it appears to you that I sink far below your religious standard, .. as I am sure I must do oftener than you remind me. [3] Also, it certainly does appear to my mind that we are not, as Christians, called to the exclusive expression of Christian doctrine, either in poetry or prose. All truth, & all beauty & all music belong to God—— He is in all things,—& in speaking of all, we speak of Him. In poetry, which includes all things, “the diapason closeth full in .. God.” [4] I would not lose a note of the lyre—& whatever He has included in His creation, I take to be holy subject enough for me. That I am blamed for this view, by many, .. I know—but I cannot see it otherwise—and when you pay your visit to Peter of York & me, & are able to talk everything over, we shall agree tolerably well, I do not doubt–
Ah——what a dream! what a thought!– Too good ever to come true!
I did not think that you would much like the Duchess May,—but among the “profanum vulgus,” [5] you cannot think how successful it has been. There was an account in one of the fugitive reviews, of a lady falling into hysterics on the perusal of it,—although that was nothing to the gush of tears of which there is a tradition, down the Plutonian cheeks of a lawyer unknown, over “Bertha in the Lane.” [6] But these things should not make anybody vain— It is the story that has power with people,—just what you do not care for!
About the reviews you ask a difficult question—but I suppose the best, as reviews, are the Dublin Review, Blackwood, the New Quarterly & the last American .. I forget the title at this moment, … the Whig American .. not the Democratic. [7] The most favorable to me, are certainly the American unremembered, & the late Metropolitan, .. which last was written, I hear, by Mr Charles Grant, [8] a voluminous writer, but no poet. I consider myself singularly happy in my reviewers, & to have full reason for gratitude to the profession.
I forgot to say that what the Dublin reviewer did me the honour of considering an Irishism, was the expression “Do you mind,” in “Cyprus Wine.” [9] But he was wrong—because it occurs frequently among our elder English writers, & is as British as London porter.
Now see, how you throw me into figurative liquids, by your last Cyprus!– It is the true celestial, .. this last! But Arabel pleased me most by bringing back so good an account of you!–
Your ever affectionate & grateful
Elibet.
Address: H S Boyd Esqre / 24 (a) Grove End Road / St John’s Wood.
Publication: LEBB, I, 246–248.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
Enclosure:
The Monster bell for York Minster
Yesterday, the Monster bell, intended for York Minster, was exhibited, for the first time, at the bazaar, Baker St, & was viewed by a great number of persons. It was brought here on Friday last, on a truck, wh weighed about five tons, & drawn by eighteen horses. It is suspended by strong iron chain slings (its weight being about sixteen tons,) which are supported by four upright pillars, fastened by transverse beams. The Exhibition will be continued several weeks, when it will be removed, per railway to York, where it will be placed in the Cathedral, in the tower, at a height of about 200 feet. It will be placed diagonally in the tower for greater security to the building, and above 300 cubic feet of timber will be used for its support. It is to be rung with two wheels, & will revolve entirely if necessary, five or six men being required for the purpose. The proceeds arising from the Exhibition are to be devoted towards the purchase of a clock & quarter bell to be placed in the same tower. The bell is to be named “Peter of York.” It is the largest in the kingdom, being five tons heavier than “Old Tom” of Oxford, & seven tons heavier than the celebrated “Tom” of Lincoln. The cost of it is above £2000, its height 7 feet 7 inches & its diameter 8 feet 4 inches.
1. Because of Boyd’s interest in campanology, Arabella had copied out the enclosure.
2. Cf. Addison, Cato (1713) I, IV, 150.
3. Perhaps a reference to Boyd’s rather unyielding anti-Catholic and anti-Unitarian views; e.g., in The Catholic Faith: A Sermon by St. Basil, Translated from the Greek. To Which is Added a Brief Refutation of Popery from the Writings of the Fathers (1825), Boyd stated that “few sinners can be as guilty in the sight of God, as they who make use of their learning to corrupt His Holy Word, and of their influence, to deceive those who look up to them as their spiritual guides” (p. 66). EBB, on the other hand, while never espousing or promoting doctrinal or authoritative unity, believed that there are “many churches on earth” (letter 1435).
4. Cf. Dryden, A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day (1687), I, line 15.
5. “Uninitiate crowd” (Horace, Odes, III, 3, 1, trans. C.E. Bennett).
6. Perhaps something related by her brother George or from Kenyon. We have not located the account in the “fugitive review” to which she alludes.
7. The January 1845 issue of The American Review: A Whig Journal; for the text of this review, see pp. 333–342.
8. See letter 1881 in which EBB’s response to Westwood indicates that he had told her that “Mr. Grant” was the author of the review in The Metropolitan Magazine.
9. See p. 370.
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