2477. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 13, 143–147.
[London]
Friday. [10 July 1846] [1]
My dearest George,
I have some things ‘on my mind,’ & they must be off it for the first relief, before I begin to talk of other things. Very much I have been pained & perplexed & surprised lately, & you shall hear how!
It appears that poor Mr Haydon has left a paper declaratory of his last wishes, now in the hands of Mr Serjeant Talfourd, in which to my infinite astonishment, he makes a bequest of his memoirs & other papers to me desiring that I should edit & place them for publication in Longman’s hands. Mr Forster called on Mr Kenyon to apprize him of this, & Mr Kenyon came to tell me of it at once.
I was amazed. The memoirs of which you may remember that I was shown a part, about a year & a half ago, though curious & interesting, are perfectly unfit for publication without large modification .. as I told Mr Haydon at the time. There are said to be twenty six volumes of them——& you may imagine that if a blind man would be an unqualified president of the Royal academy, I must be quite as unqualified for an editorship of such a description——I, without the experience of art & of the world .. who belong to a later generation, & know nothing of the persons mentioned & the events referred to——but you must see at a glance. Also it is scarcely work for a woman.
Now then—Mr Kenyon advised me to write to Mr Serjeant Talfourd, to desire information respecting this paper—— I waited however for a day or two. I felt unwilling to write to Mr Talfourd.
In the meanwhile, Mr Browning dined in Russell Square last tuesday—(he was of course aware of all these circumstances). [2] Scarcely had the men entered on their wine after dinner, when Mr Serjeant Talfourd took up the subject of poor Haydon & of the bequest he had made to me .. & read a letter of Miss Mitford’s, & two letters of mine .. or parts of them .. (which either in copy or in the original, she had taken the great liberty of sending straight to him, after having called him “the falsest of men” two days before in my room!) an absurd letter of Miss Mitford’s, to compliment Talfourd on the occasion of poor Haydon’s carrying out the principle of ‘Ion’!—(conceive that!) & to communicate the contents of my letters, in which, with natural expressions of feeling, (how can I remember what I said in a moment of emotion, to a friend like Miss Mitford?) I spoke of the boxes & pictures which I had .. “And so speaks our great poetess,” ended she ecstatically. Which Talfourd commented on by supposing drily that when Miss B wrote of Miss M, .. it was .. “And so speaks our great dramatist.” You know he hates her——& none of the ridicule of what appears to have been a most ridiculous letter, was let fall to the ground.
So somebody said one thing, & another: another—somebody said that Miss Barrett was plainly a very particular friend of Haydon’s .. & somebody said, that her house appeared to be the receptacle for his goods against his creditors——till at last Mr Browning, no longer able to contain his indignation, (observe that Edwin Landseer, Babbage, [3] Forster & more were present!) took it upon himself to answer for it of his own knowledge, that I had never seen Haydon in my life, & had received the things he sent, just as anyone would, who had too much heart to throw them out into the street. Afterwards he took Talfourd aside, & told him that he had been long in correspondence with me, & knew the circumstances in question—& Talfourd agreed with him that I had been selected for the editorship precisely because of my inexperience & isolation from the world, & in the hope that I would print everything & spare nobody. ‘But,’ said Talfourd, [‘]‘she must beware of printing anything at this time:—& beware also of its being known that she has in her possession any deposit from Haydon—otherwise she will subject herself to a legal prosecution”– So spoke the great man of Law.
Mr Browning thought it advisable that I should write at once to Talfourd, therefore, stating fully yet briefly the facts .. that Mr Haydon had written to me .. which led first into our correspondence of some months .. that I had not heard from him above a year, till the week preceding his death .. that I had received a deposit from his hands no more than twice .. once before the last fatal time!—& that, what I received, had no pecuniary value as he represented it .. consisting of private papers & a few sketches, & his oil .. that I never saw him in my life, & was astonished & perplexed at being named for an office for which I considered myself unqualified .. All this, I wrote to Mr Talfourd, ending by begging to know what I could do, not to do wrong—& he had my letter, I suppose, before he left town for circuit yesterday morning. I have yet had no reply.
Now, George, he probably will speak to you on the subject—he probably will. Therefore remember & take heed to your speech. I am very desirous of paying every respect to poor Mr Haydon’s memory .. everything that I could do, I would do. At the same time let Mr Talfourd understand the simple facts, & that this house was not used as a receptacle for the purpose of defrauding His creditors, & also that I never saw him in my life. People were ‘astonished how Miss B came to know’ &c … Poor Haydon did not lead the most prudent of lives, it appears. See what a scrape I am in!—— Mr Kenyon might well say as he did——[‘]‘You, of all in the world, I should have thought, would have been safe from the danger of such a position.”
I took the precaution of saying to Mr Talfourd, in my letter to him, that in agreeing to receive those things, it would have [been] better if I had first consulted my father & brothers, but that I could not hesitate so long as to admit of it– Which I said lest you might be blamed more gravely than I could be for an act of pitifulness!– Besides it was only just. It was my own deed. If I had asked Papa, he wd not have let me, you know—& I did not ask him.
You will observe too that Mr Browning’s account to me of what passed at Mr Serjt. Talfourd’s table, is not [to] be referred to or repeated, anywise or anywhere——nor Miss Mitford’s name, mentioned. I have no claim on him—Talfourd—he is not my friend .. he judged of things as he saw them at the first glance. As to Miss Mitford .. she was foolish & thoughtless—but meant no harm, though I am very angry in the shadow of my soul. But I heard all this from Mr Browning, & you must not on any account let it be breathed upon by other breath than our own. I never saw him so angry since our acquaintance began. Worse things were said or implied, I do not doubt, than what he told me, he was so angry.
If his name should be mentioned at all between Talfourd & you,——that is, if Talfourd shd mention it to you, .. remember that he only knows of our correspondence & not of our personal acquaintance. Mr Browning’s & mine. So be on your guard. [4]
Papa knows nothing of this turmoil, except generally of the bequest.
Have I made it clear to you, George? I have been vexed, perplexed, more than you will fancy perhaps, .. yet I am sure you will see that it is an unpleasant position. Write your thoughts to me & advise.
Poor, poor Haydon!– What are we—to complain of the dust upon his grave? Poor Haydon!–
To shift this subject to another, .. I was very sorry, my dearest George, not to see you the day I might have seen you!– Bummy & Arlette complain loudly of your absence. The former looks far better than I expected to see her—& Arlette is pretty & pleasing, to my fancy, with a more stedfast countenance than Arabella’s, though with less general grace & brilliancy. Uncle Hedley arrived in town yesterday, .. & the bridal people are to come today. Bummy whispers to me privately that Mr Bevan has only five or six hundred a year, & that it is a “very bad match for Arabella.” When aunt Jane is called worldly .. observe (which I have always seen) she is infinitely less so than some of the callers. Dear Bummy has very low spirits .. to oppression, it seems to me– Arlette thinks it better for her not to return to Paris.
So much more I had to say, but must end here–
May God bless you, dearest, & ever dear George.
I am your affectionate Ba–
Our love to everybody. Bummy will stay here, I think, until after the marriage. I have just now, a letter from Miss Mitford, .. unconscious as she is that I know of her freedom with my letters. And she has heard from Mr Serjt Talfourd, she says, who writes of me—“Our great poetess, as you very properly call her &c” &c Oh Mr Serjeant Talfourd!– Oh—Oh, the flummery of serjeants at Law! May it not well make one sick! Sweet indeed in the mouth, & bitter in the digestion, is the parlance of this world!——
He said to Mr Browning .. “If she will put me in possession of the facts, I can arrange anything with her brother, when I meet him on circuit– I know him—he is a very promising youth!” [5] Which was sincere, at least, .. I suppose, for he need not have said it to RB.
Address: George Goodin Barrett Esqre / Kinnersley Castle / near Hereford.
Publication: B-GB, pp. 141–146.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. This letter is postmarked 11 July 1846, a Saturday.
2. See letter 2473 for RB’s account of this dinner.
3. Edwin Henry Landseer (1802–73) was a former student of Haydon. Landseer first exhibited at the Royal Academy when he was 15, and is remembered for his paintings of animals. Charles Babbage (1791–1871) was a mathematician and inventor of an elaborate calculating machine.
4. See RB’s postscript to letter 2473.
5. “Promising youth” is underscored three times.
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