2983. EBB to Henrietta Cook
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 17, 198–201.
138. Avenue des Ch. Elysées.
Sunday & Monday. [14–15 December 1851] [1]
My dearest Henrietta I have your letter & write in great haste to assure you that we are neither shot nor frightened to death– I had taken for granted, your hearing from George, to whom I wrote all particulars. Perhaps they thought in Wimpole Street that my letter was not re-assuring, & so kept it to themselves– All of you in England exaggerate the state of affairs. A crisis was imminent, the whole world knew—& we have expected the culminating point week after week .. though of course without any definite expectation of what actually came– Dont believe the Times– To talk about “carnage” is quite absurd– [2] The people never rose—it was nothing but a little popular scum, cleared off at once by the troop. Painful of course .. very full of pain, of course .. for the time! Terrible, to hear the sound of the cannon in the distance, & to feel that it was frenchman against frenchman! That thursday night, I could not make up my mind to go to bed till nearly one oclock. I undressed & then sate up with Robert in my dressing gown, while he did some writing. On friday, scarcely a stroke was attempted. And on saturday, Robert & I drove down to the scene of conflict, & examined the houses with great holes in them, & the windows broken in. There was a great crowd, but all was perfectly tranquil—& Paris generally, looked as if nothing had been the matter. On sunday, the theatres were all full, (to say nothing of the churches)—the Parisians keeping holiday as usual–
To prove to you that we have not been alarmed here .. Wiedeman was taken out to walk even on that dreadful thursday. I said the other day to aunt Jane .. “Did the notion of leaving Paris ever cross your mind?” “Not for a moment” said she–
My dearest Henrietta, what really would frighten me, would be the thought of going to London in January– Thank you. I choose Louis Napoleon’s cannons rather.
It will be found I think, that the majority of the people go with him, & that everything will be settled on a firm basis for some time. It’s as much as can be said of any situation in France at any period.
I am delighted to have your account of darling Altham– It seems to me great forwardness that he should be attached to picture-books so soon. Does he care for dolls? Wiedeman did, at his age, & used to rock them to sleep, though at first they frightened him. Mrs Ogilvy gave him one, & he uttered a tremendous scream when he saw it. But that passed, & then the love came—only not for much lasting. He was not a doll-lover very long. The taste for drums & guns, & banners & priestly offices was strong upon him from a year-old & upwards. He liked books from five months old, & at nine used to pretend to read in them—which he does at this moment at a matured degree of perfection. He takes up the newspaper & reads the news .. & then looks up at Wilson & Desirée with a great deal of political anxiety in his little face, shaking his head & saying .. “Pas bonnes”– (Ces nouvelles ne sont pas bonnes.) [3] As to the revolution, Louis Napoleon himself cant be more delighted with it than our Wiedeman has been. In fact the entrance of the troops into Paris that 2d of December was very grand—the military music & the shouting of the people, as the president rode under our windows, .. the maneuvring of the splendid calvary, the white horses, glittering helmets, all that “pomp & circumstance,” [4] might well move older children than our babe. He was in the most enthusiastic state of effervescence, screaming & shouting out to the soldiers—you know he is a most excitable child at all times– We did what we could to prevent him from being frightened, too—yet he was aware every now & then that something was wrong,—and, particularly when it grew dark, he used to try to impress upon us (& upon himself, poor darling) that the “babuffs” (the soldiers) were “buoni,” [5] and had gone to bed, and would’nt do ‘boum’– Yes—and he had dreams. He starts up now in his sleep sometimes, & cries out against the ‘babuffs’ who are naughty he says—‘tativi.’ [6] But he admires them with all his soul’s admiration—and he sets himself to coax me to buy him a “hat like a soldier,” with a red feather .. “penna vass” .. white .. the English word white representing colour to his mind, & standing, in this phrase, for red. He has made friends with a little Russian princess, [7] a month younger than himself, & [‘]‘pays her great attention”, says Wilson. He told me yesterday that she was very little .. “i.i ..” (holding up his finger & thumb to show how little) but “pretty, pretty.” Her nurse & various other nurses, friends of Wilson, insult us by insisting upon it that we must curl Wiedeman’s hair in papers.!! “But,” they insist, “the hair does’nt look as if it curled naturally– Natural curls are always frizzy, & these are smooth ringlets.” Certainly it’s beautiful hair. Henrietta, I advise you to brush Altham’s before you wet it in the morning, & not afterwards. When it has been wet, rub it round & round with a towel, & leave it in a ruffled condition– That’s the way we began with Wiedeman’s, & very likely you may succeed, by such means, in making it curl. Then, dont cut it. After all it is not of much consequence, whether it curls or not, for a boy– What I disapprove of in your treatment of Altham, is the use of cold water, even for his head & face. Depend upon this, Henrietta, it is altogether wrong, while a baby is cutting his teeth, to chill him with cold water. Do you know Dr Harding of Florence, told me that the use of cold water in the winter was bad for anyone at any age, & in good or bad health: he said this, while hoping that I never used it. The chill should be taken off the water he said, in the winter always. With regard to infants, it’s quite an exploded theory, to fancy that it can be strengthening to them. Mrs Ogilvy brought that idea with her from Scotland & persisted in it with her boy, until he nearly died .. then she changed her plan in consequence of the representations of medical men, & the child prospered afterwards. Children shudder & scream when put into cold water, & that is the instinctive cry of nature in them,—the instinctive repulsion– Madme Biondi never would let an infant use cold water, even in the summer, until it was three or four years old. Observe, that quickening of the circulation, which you call a glow, & which is the alternative of a dangerous chill, must in itself be dangerous, where there is the least tendency to a feverish state of the constitution, as in teeth-cutting there always is. Also, if I were you, I would have a larger vessel than a basin, so as to enable you to give him a regular bath every morning– Dont make it too hot, & dont keep him in it too long—four or five minutes are enough– You will find it’s effects so obviously good, that in a month, I shall not need to re-urge it.
Yes, the Hedleys have been most kind & attentive—& we have had invitations to dinner, again & again,—but we wont go out to dinner anywhere—that’s a settled thing with us– Robert agreed, however, to go to them on saturday evening, last saturday, the day before yesterday, when a note from uncle Hedley arrived, I am sorry to say, to put him off on the ground of aunt Jane’s being unwell again—confined to her bed. We sent yesterday & this morning, & she is “much better” it appears. I dare say it is not anything of consequence: she is subject, you know, to dreadful bilious attacks, & the warm weather has been causing headache on all sides, to persons of that temperament–
How bad poor Surtees’s sprain must have been! Give him my love & say that I hope he is quite well by this time, with the stick thrown away. I wont write a longer letter, that you may not have to wait for it– Kiss the babe for me ten times at least & love me dearest Henrietta, as
Your ever & ever affectionate Ba.
Address: Angleterre / Mrs Surtees Cook / Taunton / Somersetshire.
Publication: Huxley, pp. 149–151 (in part, as 13–14 December 1851).
Manuscript: British Library.
1. This letter is postmarked 15 December 1851, a Monday.
2. An editorial in The Times of 5 December 1851 contained the following: “From the immense amount of the military resources of the Government and the stern determination with which they are employed, it was not to be expected that any successful effort of popular resistance could be made in Paris. Nevertheless, from an early hour yesterday the streets of the capital … witnessed a renewal of the scenes of carnage we have so often had to record and to deplore” (p. 4).
3. “Not good– (This news is not good.)”
4. Othello, III, 3, 354.
5. “Good.”
6. i.e., “cattivi.”
7. Unidentified.
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