2786. EBB to Mary Minto
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 15, 261–262.
Florence.
April 30. [1849] [1]
Thank you—my dear Mary, for your very kind little note which was a welcome sign of your continued remembrance of me. There was a certain pincushion too .. another sign .. sent to me not long since by my sisters! How good of you to keep me in mind & to bear for me so much of such affectionate sympathy. Believe that you have not thrown it away upon a friend careless & unthankful, & that she, for her part, keeps your memory warm till she may see your face again.
Our joy in the baby was soon overclouded as you heard perhaps, and my poor husband has been suffering deep anguish from the loss of his mother to whom he was peculiarly attached. Life and Death seemed to clash together in very dreary tones—for the letter announcing the child’s birth lay by the insensible mother, unopened, uncommunicated—she died & never heard of her grandchild’s birth. He came into the world to have many tears shed over him, poor little child!—may they be abstracted from those he will have to shed himself! The world is stormy too everywhere—and three days after he was born, he started at the sound of guns fired under the windows. It was supposed that he could not hear them—but he could & did– Such a fat, strong child, too, Mary,—and very pretty, we think of course.
Yes, I should like you to know my husband. He is better worth knowing than the baby, I admit willingly, & so good & tender & perfect that I must always be happier as a wife than as a mother after all. There are reasons for that—but no reason at all, dearest Mary, why you should leave off calling me Ba– It would be almost unkind, nay, quite unkind if you did– Beware of it! My sisters tell me of your being too comfortably settled in London. I thought you were coming to Italy, you & Mrs Minto, & I assure you you need not be afraid from this time forward on political grounds. For my part, having lived through two revolutions in Florence, the “cannon’s mouth” [2] seems to me “only the one mouth more”, which, as the tradition says, makes no difference in a well-regulated family. I have heard so often of “the burning & sacking of Florence” that now I dont mind it at all. Dont make your London house too pretty & comfortable .. if it is’nt both already .. but come & look at the vines which are better than the men here in Italy. My sisters talk of you; & so does Mr Kenyon sometimes. Now I shall send you my husband’s regards as a pre-payment, & mine as an old debt– Remember me kindly to Mrs Minto & think of me as your affectionate Ba–
Our plans are uncertain—very!
Address, on integral page: Miss Minto.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Year provided by EBB’s references to the birth of Pen and the death of RB’s mother.
2. Cf. As You Like It, II, 7, 153.
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