2116. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 11, 203–205.
[London]
Friday. [?28] [November 1845] [1]
I am the guilty person, dearest Mrs Martin! you would have heard from Henrietta at least yesterday, only I persisted in promising to write instead of her—& so, if there are reproaches, let them fall!– Not that I am audacious & without shame! But I have grown familiar with an evil conscience as to these matters of not writing when I ought; & long ago I grew familiar with your mercy & power of pardoning it——and then, & then, if silence & sulkiness are proved crimes of mine to ever such an extreme, why it would not be unnatural. Do you think I was born to live the life of an oyster, such as I do live here? And so, the moaning & gnashing of teeth [2] are best done alone & without taking anyone into confidence. And so, this is all I have to say for myself .. which perhaps you [will] be glad of: for you will be ready to agree with me that next to such faults of idleness, negligence, silence (.. call them by what names you please!) as I have been guilty of, .. is the repentance of them—if indeed the latter be not the most unpardonable of the two.
And what are you doing so late in Herefordshire? is dear Mr Martin too well, & tempting the demons? I do hope that the next news of you will be, of your being about to approach the sun, & visit us on the road. You do not give your wisdom away to your friends, all of it, I hope & trust—not even to Reynolds Peyton?
Tell Mr Martin that a new great daily newspaper professing ‘ultraism’ at the right end, (meaning his & mine) is making ‘mighty preparation’ [3] —to be called the ‘Daily News’, to be edited by Dickens, [4] & to combine with the most liberal politics, such literature as gives character to the French journals—the objects being both to help the people, & to give a status to men of letters socially & politically .. great objects, which will not be attained, I fear, by any such means. In the first place I have misgivings as to Dickens. He has not, I think, breadth of mind enough for such work, with all his gifts—but we shall see. An immense capital has been offered & actually advanced. Be good patriots & order the paper. And talking of papers, I hope you read in the Morning Chronicle, Landor’s verses to my friend & England’s poet, Mr Browning. They have much beauty.
You know that Occy has been ill, & that he is well? I hope you are not so behindhand in our news as not to know. For me, I am not yet undone by the winter. I still sit in my chair & walk about the room. But the prison-doors are shut close, & I could dash myself against them sometimes with a passionate impatience of this needless captivity. I feel so intimately & from evidence, how, with air & warmth together, in any fair proportion, I should be as well & happy as the rest of the world, that it is intolerable––well, it is better to sympathize quietly with Lady Adela Villiers [5] & other energetic runaways, than amuse you with being riotous to no end:—& it is best to write one’s own epitaph still more quietly,—is it not? As for Lady Adela, I heard the other day the whole first chapter of that vile romance, & how she wrote to Capt Ibbetson, after a sufficient glance at him out of the window, & signed & sealed herself “Your affectionate anonymous,” referring him to a jeweller for letter the second & a ring; while he, the “objet charmant” [6] had proposed to & been rejected by a lady rather better known to him than Lord Jersey’s daughter, just a week before the Gretna Green marriage. These details are true I believe,—& as the poor girl is so young, & scarcely knows her right hand from the left, (except by the wedding-ring) one must be sorry for her. When Lord Jersey said that he would not give her a penny, the old Ibbetson looked at the writhing Lordship with a lion-countenance, & said calmly, that, “considering the circumstances,” (meaning the strong steps of ‘affectionate anonymous’) “he must be allowed to observe that the burden of the affair did not rest wholly with the Jersey family.” The procter looked the lord in the face in that speech—& nothing could be replied. Lord Cardigan [7] is said to have arranged the elopement & lent the money, .. & all for a joke. And now you have had enough of my scandal, & you turn from me in righteous indignation. Particularly if you have heard it all before,—which makes a great difference.
And oh, how lightly I write, & then sigh to think of what different colours my spirits & my paper are. Do you know what it is to laugh, that you may not cry? Yet I hold a comfort fast.
May God bless you dearest Mrs Martin—both of you!—— You have been saddened, I feel, by the affliction of the poor Biddulphs [8] —yet do you not think that to let the sword hang on over their heads, would have prolonged their torment simply? They had no hope. They could only have patience at best. And they are likely to have more comfort in a complete resignation.
Your very affectionate Ba
Publication: LEBB, I, 274–275 (in part, as [ca. December 1845]).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to Landor’s verses, which appeared in The Morning Chronicle on 22 November 1845, and by the discussion of The Daily News, which EBB mentioned to Miss Mitford in letter 2105.
2. Cf. Matthew 8:12.
3. Cf. I Henry IV, IV, 1, 93 and Othello, I, 3, 221.
5. Adelia Corisanda Maria Villiers (1828–60), the youngest daughter of George Child Villiers (1773–1859), 5th Earl of Jersey and Lord Chamberlain to William IV, had eloped with Captain Charles Parke Ibbetson of the 11th Hussars on the 5th of November. They reached Gretna Green in Scotland where an irregular marriage ceremony took place on 6 November 1845; another ceremony was performed in St. Pancras Church on 17 November. Numerous accounts of the elopement appeared in the press.
6. “Charming object.”
7. James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (1797–1868), had assumed command of the 11th Hussars in 1836.
8. i.e., the death of John Biddulph, of Ledbury, on 25 November 1845 at the age of 78. He was a banker, magistrate, Governor of Guy’s Hospital, and Treasurer of the Royal Geographical Society. The Biddulphs were a prominent family, and much of Ledbury society centered around them. Henrietta and Bro were often in their company during the Barretts’ Hope End days.
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