2855. EBB to William Surtees Cook
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 16, 128.
[Florence]
[25 May 1850] [1]
My dear Surtees,
I thank you from my heart for your affectionate little note which gave a pleasure so disproportioned to its size. I have great faith in you, and am confident that you will make my dearest Henrietta as happy a wife as she begins by being—for I feel her happiness radiate through her letter, dear thing! It seems to me that she has acted, in a very difficult part, with all dutifulness– I can blame neither of you—of course I cant—I mean to say that no Mrs Grundy of the world could blame you, with a sense of justice in herself and after a nice consideration of the facts. For my own part, believing, as I do, that the right of personal choice is the great right of every woman & man, & that out of it, proceeds the whole sequence of the domestic virtues & affections, I hold the exercise of it to be a high religious duty, acceptable before God, & admirable before the world.
Quite right it is in you, Surtees, to make Henrietta eat & do you credit. I never heard of her having grown thin—and now it will be disgraceful of her to be thin any longer, and I hope & trust the fattening process will be a quick one. Arabel tells me of your taking immense walks—dont let them be too long, or they will militate against the influence of the “delicious apple tarts” … celebrated even across the Alps, you see! I should not be surprised if you were reconciled to some of your enemies, by a sudden invitation to Tunbridge Wells. [2] How kind your family have been to Henrietta! Will you offer my love to them & my grateful sense of this goodness to my sister? Susan will, I trust, marry a man as upright, disinterested, & reliable, as Henrietta has been happy enough to find,—and then I shall affectionately congratulate her. Now, Surtees, you must not let Henrietta forget me, if you please– Say every now & then .. “Surely it is time to write to Ba”. Robert says he is delighted to be your ‘brother Browning’; and as for me, dear Surtees, I beg of you always to remember me as your
very affectionate sister
Ba–
Address, on integral page: Capt Surtees Cook.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: In private collection.
1. This letter was enclosed in the preceding letter.
2. Where Bummy was then residing.
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