3101. EBB to Emily Patmore
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 204–205.
58 Welbeck street
September 1. [1852] [1]
My dear Mrs Patmore, [2]
I come back & find that I have lost your visit, and am to answer your kind invitation. I cannot go, I am very sorry to say,—I am a prisoner & a nurse for the next fortnight, my child being thrown upon my hands for washing, dressing & comforting, in the absence of my maid who leaves us to see her mother. You will understand how impossible it will be for me to desert him at his need, poor darling.
By the way, you took away with you a very discreditable specimen of his progress in high art, & I hope you will burn it to make amends to my vanity–
The enclosed work which he produced this morning, shows more invention at least– Here (observe) is the sea, with a steamer & a gondola—on one side, a mountain with trees, & a house on the summit—a soldier on guard, with a banner in his right hand.!!
My husband will have the pleasure of seeing you on saturday at seven, which he believes was the hour you mentioned.
Most truly yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Boston College.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address; the only year the Brownings resided at 58 Welbeck Street was 1852.
2. Emily Augusta Patmore (née Andrews, 1824–62) had married Coventry Kersey Deighton Patmore (1823–96) in 1847. Considered a great beauty, her portrait was painted by Millais, and she served as the inspiration for RB’s poem “A Face” which was written in Mrs. Patmore’s album on 11 October 1852, the day before the Brownings left London (see Reconstruction, E123). Under the pseudonym of “Mrs. Motherly,” she wrote two books for children: Nursery Poetry (1859) and Nursery Tales (1860).
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