3069. EBB to Henrietta Cook
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 172–174.
58 Welbeck street
Saturday. [Postmark: 24 July 1852]
My beloved Henrietta I was delighted & grateful on receiving your dear, welcome letter. Now that you are gone, and not going, I begin to understand the preciousness of having seen you, almost as well as I did when I first began to see you. But the going was so sad, that it seemed to spoil everything for the time. God bless you & yours, dearest!– I did not tell you how much I liked & appreciated Surtees, dear Surtees, & delighted to see you happy together. Give him my love as from a true sister. It was great comfort to both Arabel & me to have news of you .. for you looked really unwell that melancholy morning, & as I, for one, have not the slightest faith in your calculations, I felt it a sort of possibility that, by the time of your arrival at Taunton, you might be five instead of four in your rail carriage, [1] exclusive of conservative electors.
You give a promising account of the negociations, so far, about the house. Did Surtees like the other house he went to see, or not? As to the matter of Mrs Brown, [2] perhaps it is better as it is. I am inclined to think so, for my part.
We had tea at Trippy’s last thursday, Robert, Arabel, Wiedeman & I .. and in the midst of the ginger cordial, in came Alfred & Occy—the former looking well, I think, & the latter too well, inasmuch as the sun & sea air had flushed & darkened him considerably. He & Sette have an unpicturesque tendency, it strikes me, to overstoutness. Alfred still complains of suffering in the hands & shoulders, but there is nothing to hinder his activity. His return home was delayed by want of funds. The landlady sent up a bill of twelve pounds, & the finances consisted of seven—so they wrote home (Alfred & Occy did) & Henry placed the letter where Papa could see it. Who took no manner of notice nevertheless. But Arabel & Henry advanced the money, & the gentlemen in difficulties were delivered forthwith.
Yes, I went to Wimpole street. It was sad & strange. Minny was paler I thought, & moved heavily. Altogether it “did me up” (an expressive phrase which you must forgive for being slang) and I could’nt get to Carlyle’s in the evening, which vexed Robert. On wednesday however we were together at the Procters, & had a very pleasant meeting– Mon[c]kton Milnes was there, & Mrs Jameson, & Mr Lane, the artist, [3] & sundry others. Yesterday we broke a vow & dined with Mr Milnes. But it was a five oclock dinner, & we were to meet nobody except the son of Chevalier Bunsen, the Prussian minister, [4] & a relative of the Milnes’s. [5] After dinner Mr & Mrs Milnes & ourselves went out to drive in the open barouche, & walked in the beautiful garden of the Alexandrian consul at Kensington– [6] Not unpleasant, altogether. Mrs Milnes expects her confinement every hour,—& he is in a fuss about it of course. Next wednesday we are to go to Mrs Haworth’s to meet Lord Stanhope [7] & his chrystal ball, which is some spiritual consolation to me. And this is the extent of our gad-about-edness, so far.
Now I shall surprise you– Who, do you guess, is spending today in Wimpole street? Guess, Surtees, guess Henrietta–
Your Susan—Susan Cook. How Arabel invoked her & enchanted her into coming, I cant tell—but I do hope, Henrietta, that the fact will cause you to blush for your own personal stiff backedness. [8]
Robert came back from Paris on that very monday at half past six .. that is, several hours before I thought of expecting him. He had safely deposited the poor victim, & left him tolerably composed & comfortable. [9] I do hope it may all end well. In any case the end cant be worse than the beginning. Robert’s spirits are better, I think. But the vexation of it all is immense[.]
To change the subject as fast as possible, .. do write to me about the house, & tell me all your arrangements. Give ten kisses for me to the darling– One day he shall pay me back those he refused me, with compound interest. Robert’s best love to you all three with that of your
ever attached Ba–
Dearest Henrietta, I went with Arabel some days ago to see Mrs Orme. Her face seemed to me looking better, but she cant move– There must be water .. notwithstanding medical asseveration to the contrary. She wont go back to Mrs Robson, though the latter has given up her school. [10] They both affectionately asked after you.
Arabel will tell you about the plate. I am writing with .. a poker, I was going to say .. but it’s more after the likeness of a pair of tongs ..
Address: Mrs Surtees Cook. / Taunton / Somersetshire.
Publication: Huxley, p. 165 (in part, as 23 July 1852).
Manuscript: British Library.
1. A reference to Henrietta’s pregnancy; see letter 3017, note 3.
2. Unidentified. The Cooks left London and arrived in Taunton on 19 July, where they took temporary lodgings. They moved into their “old house at Wilton” on 7 August (Surtees, 7 August 1852).
3. Richard James Lane (1800–72), printmaker, portraitist, and sculptor, was appointed lithographer to the Queen in 1837 and to Prince Albert in 1840. There are over 900 of his works listed in the catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery.
4. Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen (1791–1860) had been the Prussian ambassador to the court of St. James since 1842. He and his wife had five sons, but EBB is doubtless referring to their second son Ernest Christian Ludwig de Bunsen (1819–1903), a biblical scholar, who had settled in England with his English wife.
5. Based on a reference in letter 3089 to “Mrs. Mon[c]kton Milnes’s relation … who had had twelve children,” this is probably Frances Caroline Crewe (née Jenney, 1808–86), wife of the Rev. Henry Robert Crewe (né Harpur, 1801–65), distant relative of Mrs. Milnes. The Crewes had thirteen children: eight boys and five girls.
6. EBB may have in mind the British consul at Alexandra, who at this time was Francis Hastings Gilbert. We have been unable, however, to connect him with property in Kensington.
7. Philip Henry Stanhope (1781–1855), 4th Earl Stanhope, radical politician with eccentric interests, including aviation and evidently spiritualism. Fanny Haworth and her mother, Euphrasia Haworth (d. 1856, aged 76), were living at 45 Onslow Square, Brompton.
8. Surtees’s sister Susannah Cook wrote Henrietta the same day from 50 Wimpole Street: “I must write a line to you from your own little table in the drawing room! … I feel in a regular fright all the time. What events have happened since I was in this house … Wiederman has been here all the morning” (SD1587). Apparently, Henrietta had not returned to Wimpole Street since her marriage.
9. As a result of the breach of promise trial, in which the jury awarded £800 in damages to Mrs. von Müller (see letter 3060, note 2). It was thought best that RB, Sr. should leave the country. RB helped move his father and sister to Paris, settling them in an apartment at 6 Rue de la Comète. All three probably left for Paris on the morning of 17 July. RB returned to London on “that very monday”; that is, 19 July, the day the Cooks departed London for Taunton.
10. According to the 1851 British census, Charlotte Orme was living at 36 Edwardes Square, Kensington, with her daughter Maria Margaret Robson (née Orme, 1805–91), who was running a school for young ladies at that address.
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