3029. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 79–81.
138. Avenue des Ch. Elysées.
Sunday morning. [?28 March] [1852] [1]
Madam Mohl comes with welcome news, dearest friend, .. that we are to see you & soon. Tanto meglio [2] —it will be very great pleasure.
But why not write to us directly? Robert would have liked to have helped you a little in the matter of apartments, though I dont recommend him for any especial skill in that particular province, after all.
I just want to tell you about our own house. On our fourth floor, is a small apartment, consisting of a diningroom (tiney in proportions) a drawingroom larger though not large, two small bedrooms, with kitchen &c– The drawingroom has two windows with a balcony, & a beautiful view on the great avenue. Sofa, armchair, & carpet, .. you would find there—and the price of all is a hundred francs a month, .. one pound a week. Only you must take it for the month, if you take it at all—& it wd be difficult, if not impossible to find rooms anywhere on other terms, unless you went to an hotel. Madame Mohl seems to agree with us on this point.
The height will be the objection to you of course, but it is fair to tell you that the staircase is very easy and good, & that there is no entresol, so that it can scarcely be called more than a third floor, in another situation. You know I am susceptible about staircases, & my opinion is therefore worth having on the subject.
The concierge’s wife will make your coffee & do all the attendance necessary, at the cost of about fifteen francs a month, it is supposed—and our proprietaire, [3] Mr Byrne, an Irishman, assures me that you can have a very sufficient dinner, for one franc a day, from the traiteur below.
Mr Byrne says also that if you liked to have a bedroom only, he has a good one with two windows, on the third floor, & it should be made comfortable for you with carpet, armchairs &c .. for forty francs a month– The French, you know, n’y regardent pas de si pres, [4] & will “receive” & sleep in the same room. But this would not be very desireable perhaps. Judge yourself.
If neither of which arrangements should suit you, Robert might find something for you very easily we think, in one of the side streets sweeping into the ‘Avenue’ .. for instance, where his father & sister lived last november. It is but a short distance from us, & you would have larger rooms, on a first floor, for the same price—only really this situation seems to me worth paying for, with its brilliant look-out, to say nothing of the convenience of the fiacres & omnibuses, waiting to be called upon, under our windows.–
Madame Mohl may have something better to offer you—and I do hope she has.
If you come near us, we can lend you towels, & table cloth, I think, .. but as we use all our sheets, I do advise you to bring with you two pairs– The hire of linen is very dear, & it is’nt worth while to throw away money, when you can avoid the necessity so easily– Two pairs of small sheets will pack away at the bottom of whatever box you bring, & the custom house permits it as we found in our own case.
Yes, I received your last letter—& was meaning to answer it indeed:—I received your last letter & the violet smelling ‘not of itself but thee’ [5] .. welcome therefore on that account, though throughout February we have had nosegays of violets from the Parisian gardens. I tell you, lest you should be vaingloriously under the delusion, as some of you are, that we dont exceed you here in the matter of climate. The lilacs in our garden are in nearly full leaf—and Wilson & Wiedeman bought me yesterday a bouquet of spring flowers, for which they had paid three sous in the street. The child is well, thank God, .. and as the physician told a friend [6] of ours the other day, that “nothing whatever” had been the matter with him, why I suppose I was wrong in having felt uneasy.
So sorry I am to hear of your not being strong! Overwork, I suppose—so now it must be holiday & liberty. The change of air & scene will set you up on your feet again, I do trust. In the meantime .. “to have to climb to a fourth floor,” you say.!! “But such an easy staircase,” .. I insist on the other hand.
We were much interested by the extract from Lady Byron’s letter about the Preface, [7] & very thankful for it. Thank you, thank you.
That letter I lost of yours (to my misfortune) is the single letter we have lost since we left England. Yes, Wilson lost another from her family,—only we suspected in that latter case, the accuracy of the ‘direction’. I have received letters full of every insanity of invective, politically speaking—no sign of a letter being opened! And as to the newspapers, .. Louis Phillippe, who excluded Punch, would never have let in such newspapers from England—such as the Examiner … and Leader for instance!–
Write, & say what we shall do for you– Robert bids me tell you with his best love that he will follow your commands faithfully,—point by point.
Your ever affectionate
Ba—
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dating suggested by EBB’s reference to a remark made by Pen’s physician, Dr. MacCarthy (see the fifth to the last paragraph). She repeats the same remark to Henrietta in letter 3031 (see the first paragraph).
2. “So much the better.”
3. “Landlord.” Probably Miles Byrne (1780–1862), a leader of the 1798 Irish Rebellion, who resided in the Rue Montaigne (now Rue Jean Mermoz), near Champs-Élyseés, with his wife Fanny (née Horner).
4. “Don’t look at things so closely.”
5. Ben Jonson, The Forest, ix, “Song. To Celia” (1616), line 16.
6. Mrs. Streatfeild.
7. Presumably RB’s introductory essay in Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1852). Mrs. Jameson had received a presentation copy the previous month (see letter 3005) and may have lent it to Lady Byron. EBB uses the word “preface,” as does RB, to refer to the essay in other letters; see, for example, letters 3005, 3007, and 3009.
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