Correspondence

2060.  EBB to William Cox Bennett

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 11, 118.

[London]

11 October 1845

Offered for sale in Sotheby’s Catalogue, 5 July 1900, lot 100. 1 p., 12mo. Acknowledging the gift of a book, EBB writes: “I thank you for the honour you have done me in sending me a volume of your poems, and for the expression of your favourable opinion. I have scarcely had a moment to open the book, but the metal of it seems to ring.” [1]

1. This is the first known letter in the correspondence between William Cox Bennett (1820–95) and either of the Brownings. Presumably EBB is thanking him for Songs, Ballads, &c. (Greenwich, 1845). An account of Bennett’s relationship with the Brownings by Michael Meredith can be found in The Browning Newsletter (no. 9, Fall 1972, pp. 9–16).

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