2799. EBB to Eliza Anne Ogilvy
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 15, 302–304.
Florence.
June 25. [1849] [1]
My dear Mrs Ogilvy,
As you are so kind as to offer to help us at your Baths, we will venture to ask Mr Ogilvy to make a proposition to Pagnani. [2] Would he take us in at sixty francesconi the month, (two a day) us two, & our two maids,—& letting us have the apartment which he showed us that morning? We agree to the table d’hôte for ourselves & our servants, only we must of course have breakfast & tea in our private rooms:—and if he accepts our terms, we will engage to stay with him certainly two months & perhaps three. Six pauls each a day, & four for the servants … our expenses in Florence do not exceed this, .. making the right allowance for the rooms apart from the board: and, being of the little-eaters of the earth, we are quite sure that he would not lose by us if the arrangement were made– I should however tell you that in consequence of a letter from casa Valeri, Bagni Caldi, we have made an offer for the second floor, of sixty francesconi for the season—thirty less than were asked, & therefore it is not likely that we should get in there. Still it will be well to ascertain, before an engagement is concluded (should it prove concludeable) with Pagnani– Are we trying Mr Ogilvy’s kindness too severely? Almost I am afraid.
You will wonder at our newborn courage for the tavola rotonda [3] but I dont think we shall dislike it. We shant have to talk to anybody, you know—it will be much like looking out of a window at the world. The objection to the small rooms & the closeness, is serious,—and I have fears of the same kind about your little house, notwithstanding it’s most excellent neighbourhood possible. Altogether, and as we have resolved on dismissing our man-servant, [4] there will be more comfort & less fuss in the hotel arrangement, if it could be managed.
Dear Mrs Ogilvy, we have been expecting you from evening to evening:—but you are right– Florence begins to be scarcely habitable through the excessive heat. The nearer we approached Florence, the hotter we grew .. just as if were drawn in to the “central fire” of the universe. And what made me still hotter was a sudden anxiety about the baby—“If we should find anything gone wrong”, .. Robert by no means giving me encouragement, for which I was reasonable enough to reproach him. It was great joy when the porter said “Tutto va bene”, [5] and when our door opened upon baby at the threshold, looking fatter & rosier than ever and rounding his blue eyes with a sort of wild wonder at the sudden storm of kisses– I, for my part, came in for a most cordial kiss from the scarlet-cheeked balia, who thought it right perhaps, to make up for the passiveness of her charge. Oh—of course he did not know me: that would be too much to expect. But, being in the best humour possible, he condescends to allow himself to be “lugged” about, as I can manage it—(so heavy the child is)—keeping a secret opinion, I dare say, of the superior agreeableness, of Robert & Wilson who can dance him, and of the balia who provides other entertainment. I do hope your boy will prosper with his teeth, after the first sprouting begins. It seems to my ignorance that afterward he may be expected to suffer less.
Poor Rome! so you wish her “out of her pain.” And I wish France out of the dishonor of the imputations cast upon her. We shall see whether she will back Austria or face Austria– It is bad enough as it is. Did I tell you that Mr Powers had a new little girl, [6] & that I saw it when it was ten days old & unspeakably large & ugly? Since then, Robert says it is growing into more sculpturesque form. But this is a break in my French politics. Ledru Rollin is certainly better out of the way, [7] I agree with Mr Ogilvy.
I am just beginning to grow out of my fatigue, but the fatigue seems to have done me no harm, in the way of illness—I am as well as people can hope to be when embeddied [sic] in hot embers. The thermometer rises as rapidly as Jack’s beanstalk– It was at eighty yesterday in my bedroom. As to San Giovanni, [8] he was very dull: only the Florentines comforted themselves by going to the Cascine to hear the Austrian band play. I begin to be sceptical of the return of Leopold the second, altogether. The last Austrian ordinance is against the dogs– All dogs found in the street to be killed straightway, lest they shd interfere with the movements of the Austrian horse.! So I am enraged in the interests of Flush.
Now, as I hope to see you so soon, I wont write any more this morning, and indeed I wish you to receive by the earliest post what I have written. May we ask you to write? My husband is rather better than otherwise, I hope, for our excursion; but it was not enough to do the much which is needful for him.
Do give our regards to Mrs Ogilvy, and to Mr Ogilvy and your brother. [9] I knew him only as Mrs David Ogilvy’s brother, and he was kind enough to me the other evening to leave me ashamed of this ignorance of his name. How kind you all were! how we thank you again & again!
Most truly yours I am, believe me,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Publication: EBB-EAHO, pp. 1–4.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to “the return of Leopold” to Florence, which occurred on 28 July 1849.
2. Sic, for Pagnini; see letter 2797, note 15.
3. “Round table.”
4. i.e., Alessandro; see letter 2744, note 23.
5. “Everything’s fine,” or “all’s well.”
6. Frances Austin Powers (1849–57) was the Powerses’ seventh child and fourth daughter.
7. On 12 June 1849 in the National Assembly, Ledru-Rollin presented a motion for the impeachment of Louis Napoleon. “The motion was defeated, and next day … he [Ledru-Rollin] headed what he called a peaceful demonstration, and his enemies armed insurrection. He himself escaped to London where he joined the executive of the revolutionary committee of Europe, with Kossuth and Mazzini among his colleagues” (EB).
8. An allusion to the Feast of St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, which is celebrated on 24 June.
9. Mrs. Ogilvy had three brothers: William Abercromby Dick (1823–1906), Abercromby Robert Dick (1829–63), and Alfred Abercromby Dick (1834–74). We are unable to determine which one EBB met. “Mrs. Ogilvy” refers to the recipient’s mother-in-law, Marcia Anne Symson Ogilvy (née Napier, 1783–1861).
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