3092. EBB to Henrietta Cook
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 196–197.
58– Welbeck street
Tuesday. [Postmark: 17 August 1852]
Just one word to my dearest Henrietta, to say that I think of her & love her—because it seems to me that I write very little, which is true indeed. I am giddy with the heaps of things & faces in this London—but thoughts go on the same way as ever, & so do loves, of course.
It delights me to think of you in your own house, of which your description is most pleasant. Whenever I claim my chair, Henrietta, I will give you something as good in the place of it,—so it is a reliable chair, pray consider. Your room must be very nice .. & much the better for the absence of Trippy’s bed, .. a snuggery & a buggery being incompatible things. I think I should be half inclined to adopt your dining room with its windows opening into the garden, as a sitting room– Did you ever think of it? Or I would have an outside rustic flight of wooden steps, dropped from the drawingroom window into the garden, after the foreign fashion. It would cost you little, & be pretty & convenient.
What does Surtees mean by inscribing “Althamus secundus”? Why, I do hope he does’nt contemplate the atrocity of your having a boy. It would be too bad indeed. Take care of yourself, dearest dear Henrietta, & be of sound & tranquil mind, of excellent spirits & courage, & have a little girl as fresh as a Hebe, to confound me with jealousy & covetousness. I am getting the nightcaps ready, in spite of all outraged feelings, pray understand—tho’ Arabel says you wont–
As for me, when she tells you that I am “tolerable” I suppose she means simply “bearable”—not a very complimentary expression I confess, but not calculated to give you any manner of uneasiness. The fact is, I am well—too well, alas! and looking forward to no kind of “trial” as you say—(it was a false hope altogether). So much the worse for me—only you need not be very unhappy in consequence—oh no.
Today we dine with the Arnolds. [1] Tomorrow we pass the evening at Mr Procter’s. The next day we go in the morning to Mon[c]kton Milnes’s christening, & at night to the opera, [2] by grace of Mrs Duncan Stewart’s [3] opera box. We were invited to supper afterwards, but that, I really had not physical force for. On saturday we set off to Farnham with Wiedeman, & stay till Monday with Mr & Mrs Paine. He is the greatest hop-grower in Europe, so I hope to improve at last in speculative farming. Mr Kenyon has gone to Scotland. Oh—you are not to fancy that we are whirling down all the circles of an infernal dissipation—only, people are very kind to us, such as are in town—two quite strangers have offered me actually their carriages .. to be at my disposition .. (not accepted of course!) and this kindness forces one to be turning round one’s head in various directions—but there has been more to do this week than is usual to us.
Aunt Jane is in London today for an hour, & George returns with her to the wedding at Cheltenham, [4] & will afterwards go, he thinks, to Derbyshire & the lakes. I am glad he goes, though I am sorry for myself– Our dreadful business proceeds towards a settlement, but is not settled yet. Mr Browning has been unwell in Paris, but we are now easy about him again. Robert’s spirits are better.
I have had a letter from Mrs Cust .. late Mrs Streatfield, written six days after her marriage, but by no means in an ecstatical state.
I just hear, that aunt Jane, said to Arabel quite loudly (with the intention that Papa should hear her) “give my best love to Ba.” He was standing side by side with Arabel at the time.
Accept this billet, for the billet which it is. Full of love, though!
Your ever attached Ba–
Robert’s & my love to Surtees. Kisses to the darling.
Arabel’s best love. She comes to say so.
Address: Mrs Surtees Cook / Wilton / Taunton / Somersetshire.
Publication: Huxley, pp. 166–167 (in part).
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Sic, for Arnoulds. Joseph Arnould is listed in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-3) at 35 Westbourne Place, Eaton Square.
2. To see Pietro il Grande by Louis Antoine Julienne. An advertisement in The Times of 19 August 1852 announced its performance that night at the “Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden … at half-past 7” (p. 4). The opera had opened on 17 August; it closed after five performances.
3. Harriet Everilda Stewart (1806–84), daughter of Anthony Gore and his wife Harriet, had married John Duncan Stewart (d. 1869, aged 64), a wealthy merchant, at Paris in 1829. Mrs. Stewart is listed in AB-3 at 57 Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square.
4. Of EBB’s cousin Robert Hedley and Charlotte Emma Catherine (“Kate”) Coote (1828–1917), daughter of Charles Johnson Coote (d. 1841), of Bellamont Forest, co. Cavan, and his wife Louisa (née Dawson, d. 1879). They were married at St. Mary’s, Cheltenham, on 19 August 1852.
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