198. Edward Moulton-Barrett (brother) to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 201–202.
[London]
[August 1824] [1]
My dearest Bazy
You realy are quite incorrigible, after all my effusions or rage, indignation &c &c you take it coolly and answer me only by your impudent silence, which provokes me more than the most violent passion you could assume. I suppose you will plead as your excuse, the round of uninterrupted business you were pursuing at Cheltenham, no, no Miss Bazy that’s “all my eye,” [2] if you did not positively wish to seek some excuse tolerably digestable, for indulging your idleness in not answering my letters, by even a line in return. you could have found plenty of time to scribble me a few lines, however it is of no use, to waste both my time and patience, upon so inattentive, & careless a ear, however all I’ve got to say is, that if the distance between you and me, was converted from miles into inches I would soon make that said member of yours a little more susceptible to my more urgent remonstrances. Yesterday on going into the hall after school, what was my astonishment at seeing Mr Mc Swiney standing there as large as life, and as great a dandy as ever, he certainly was not looking quite so interesting, as the day he went in the celebrated lilac coat to pay his repects to the late lord Castlereigh, [3] no, “we shall never see its like again,” [4] but a frock coat of latest and most fashionable cut, brown duck trowsers, a mighty nate [sic] pair of sharp pointed boots, a stock six inches in length, and as inflexible as iron, with a very hiligant [sic] gold pin by way of a polisher, he answered to the letter, the description which was given of him a short time ago, that of a “dashing hibernian”, but joking aside he is looking as well as ever I saw him, and I assure you I was very glad to see him; he says he likes Brighton very much and is as comfortably settled as possible. When we arrived here we found another old acquaintance, no other than Mrs Orme who looks all the smarter for a little Frenchification, curls half a yard long &c &c and is also very well; she is now looking out for another place as governess. Good bye my dearest Bazy, I hope you wont forget, me this next week, for I shall have my revenge if you dont.
Believe me
your ever affectionate
Brozzy
Love to all.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
1. Bro addressed the preceding letter, dated 29 July 1824, to EBB at Cheltenham. This one reads as if her visit there had just recently ended.
2. Goldsmith’s The Goodnatur’d Man (1768), act III, sc. 1.
3. Lord Castlereagh (1769–1822), British statesman and Foreign Secretary (1812–22).
4. Cf. Hamlet, I, 2, 188.
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