2876. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 16, 183–184.
Siena.
[ca. 3] Sept [1850] [1]
Here I am keeping my promise, my dear Miss Blagden. We arrived quite safely, & I was not too tired to sleep at night, though tired of course, .. and the baby was a miracle of goodness all the way, .. only inclining once to a “rabbia” [2] through not being able to get at the electric telegraph, but in ecstasies otherwise at everything new. We had to stay at the inn all night. We heard of a multitude of villas, none of which could be caught in time for the daylight. On sunday however; just as we were beginning to give it up, in Robert came with good news, and we were settled in half an hour afterwards here .. a small house of some seven rooms, two miles from Siena, & situated delightfully in its own grounds of vineyard & olive ground, not to boast too much of a pretty little square flower garden. The grapes hang in garlands (too tantalizing to Wiedeman) about the walls & before them—and, through & over, we have magnificent views of a noble sweep of country, undulating hills & various verdure, and, on one side, the great Maremma extending to the foot of the Roman mountains– Our villa is on a hill called ‘poggio dei venti,’ [3] & the winds give us a turn accordingly at every window. It is delightfully cool, & I have not been able to bear my window open at night since our arrival: also we get good milk & bread & eggs & wine, & are not much at a loss for anything. Think of my forgetting to tell you (Robert wd not forgive me for that) how we have a specola or sort of belvidere [sic] at the top of the house, which he delights in, & which I shall enjoy presently, when I have recovered my taste for climbing staircases. He carried me up once, but the being carried down was so much like being carried down the flue of a chimney, that I waive the whole privilege for the future. What is better, to my mind, is the unexpected fact of being able to get books at Siena—nearly as well as at Brecker’s, really, though Dumas fils seems to fill up many of the interstices where you think you have found something. Three pauls a month, the subscription is: [4] and for seven, we get a Galignani, or are promised to get it. We pay for our villa, ten scudi the month, so that, altogether, it is not ruinous– The air is as fresh as English air, without English dampness and transition, .. yes, and we have English lanes with bowery tops of trees, & brambles & blackberries, and not a wall anywhere, except the walls of our villa.
For my part I am recovering strength I hope & believe. Certainly I can move about from one room to another, without reeling much: but I still look so ghastly, as to “back recoil,” [5] perfectly knowing “why,” from everything in the shape of a looking glass– Robert has found an armchair for me at Siena. To say the truth, my time for enjoying this country life, except the enchanting silence & the look from the window, has not come yet: I must wait for a little more strength. Wiedeman’s cheeks are beginning to redden already, and he delights in the pigeons & the pig & the donkey & a great yellow dog & everything else new:—only he wd change all your trees (except the apple trees), he says, for the Austrian band at any moment. He is rather a town baby, as Flush is a town dog. Poor baby,—he is undergoing the gradual process of weaning just now, and too often I hear a dreadful screaming, one moment for the balia & another, for the grapes.
Our drawback is, dear Miss Blagden, that we have not room to take you in. So sorry we both are indeed. Write & tell me whether you have decided about Vallombrosa. I hope we shall see much of you still at Florence if not here.– We cd give you everything here except a bed. Robert’s kindest regards with those of
Your ever affecte
Elizabeth B Browning.
My love to Miss Agassiz, whenever you see her.
Publication: LEBB, I, 456–458.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Dating based on EBB’s reference to the Brownings’ arrival at their villa on Sunday, 1 September 1850.
2. “Rage.”
3. “Hill of winds,” hence the name of their villa, Poggio al Vento.
4. Possibly to the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario which was operated by the Società Rozzo-Filodrammatica. Established in 1828, the Gabinetto provided its readers with foreign newspapers and magazines, including Galignani’s Messenger (Accademia dei Rozzi, L’archivio dell’Accademia, comp. Mario De Gregori and R. Lugarini, Siena, 2006, p. 41).
5. Cf. Paradise Lost, VI, 194.
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