2699. EBB to Mary Louisa Boyle

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 297.

Palazzo Guidi

[7 September 1847] [1]

I thank you, dear Miss Boyle, for the kind feeling which induced your kind note to me, and for the desire to see us at Lorenzo’s Villa which it would have been so natural & pleasant to have answered in person yesterday– But I have not been lately quite as strong as usual, .. at least it has been thought wisest for me not to exert myself as much as usual, as matter of precaution & preparation for our journey toward Rome on the twentieth: and the fact is, that I have not been in a carriage for several weeks on this account– On this, too, I must give up for the present your villa & Lorenzo—but why, therefore, must we give up you? Rather, if you ever come into Florence, (which of course you do), and if, having come, you ever have an unenchanted half-hour, (which is more doubtful) and if you think it worth while, in the spirit of your note, to bestow it on us, .. come & see us at any hour except from three to five, and believe of my husband & myself that we shall be happy to receive you as no stranger. <…>

Publication: None traced.

Source: The Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery Catalogue 246 [December 1995], p. 11.

1. Dating is provided in the Rendell Gallery Catalogue without explanation. EBB’s reference in letter 2701 to answering Miss Dowglass and then Miss Boyle indicates placement after 2698.

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