194. Edward Moulton-Barrett (brother) to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 195–196.
[London]
[3 July 1824] [1]
My dearest Bazy
I recieved your letter which contain the news of Sam’s death, and I cannot say I am sorry for it as indeed in his state it must have [been] a most happy release, the only thing to be regretted is his unhappy ignorance of the state he was in till the last. I think you wished last holidays to have a specimen of the subjects which are given to the second form for english verses, I accordingly send you the thesis for next Saturday, which is the only one for this quarter;—Ex: ch4–11 verse. “Who maketh the dumb or deaf.” you will see that it is not quite in your style, however I have an idea that if you were at Charter and in the second that you would beat a good many of them in the english verses, if not in any thing else! Russell has given us a few good strict examinations in Homer, and the repetition of the Ovid, from all of which I am happy to say I came off extremely well, Sam has also been examined by him several times since we came back. They still talk of McAdamizing the green, [2] and they are certainly going [to make] a most material alteration in the chapel, and greatly enlarge it [3] however I have since heard that the story of our not being allowed to go out any more on Saturdays after this quarter is a complete lie, for which I assure you I am not atall [sic] sorry. I have this week recieved a most [pleasing] letter from Hastings in which Treppy says she likes the place much better as the summer advances, and that Granny is much better than she was a short time ago, but all this I suppose you have heard yourself and as stale news is not much adapted to interest, and as I have nothing else to communicate to you but what is stale, I shall wish you a very good morning, for it is past six o’clock and nearly time to go into school.
Believe me my dearest Bazy—
your ever affectionate
Bro
You deserve by the bye to be roasted for your shameful neglect of correspondence however you shall be excused, if you write me a good long letter of reconciliation this week.
Address, on integral page: Miss Barrett / Hope End / Ledbury / Herefordshire.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
1. Day and month determined by postmark; the year by reference to the death of Samuel Barrett, son of Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Williams and a first cousin of EBB’s father, on 13 June 1824.
2. The Green was about 330 feet square, and Dr. Russell had reported to the Governors as early as 1819 that it was “uneven, full of holes, and quite unfit for the playing of games.” In 1821 he was given permission to level and improve it. (Charterhouse in London, by Gerald S. Davies, 1921, pp. 268–270.)
John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836) devised a system for hard-surfacing roads; his name became a synonym for the process.
3. This was not done, however, until 1826, when “a recess (it cannot be called an aisle) was added to the north side” (Chronicles of Charter-House, by William J. D. Roper, 1847, p. 144).
___________________
