3127. EBB to William Surtees Cook
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 233–234.
[London]
[29 September 1852] [1]
My dear Surtees,—Thank God—& thank you! You were kind to try to let me know yesterday of the new happiness to you & all of us– May God bless my dear dearest Henrietta & her little girl! [2] Oh—a little girl– Tell her in a whisper that it was wicked of her to fill me up with covetousness– I dont covet my neighbour’s ass, [3] —but my neighbour’s little girl-baby I do covet & envy from the bottom of my corruption .. which is deep–
In the meantime I can rejoice for myself as well as you, in the joyful end of our anxieties– She made us wait! did’nt she? and we were very patient. I began to think that the coming baby was altogether apochryphal, .. & of course that was the reason of my delays about the caps!!_____________
Robert sends you his best love & most earnest congratulations.
I do wish I had that baby in my arms .. only, first of all, I should be for kissing nine times nine [4] the dearest mother, who lies there with a smile on her face & thanks to God in her soul, I know.
May God bless you all!–
We are in a tremendous perplexity today, .. Madame Puyo’s [5] insolence having exceeded the bounds of our patience at last. I had to tell her in a voice like a sucking dove’s [6] (as I confess to having no martial genius) that her conduct was infamous & we should leave her house forthwith– So we go—& Arabel has enacted guardian angel to us again & secured for a week your old rooms in 15. Bentinck Street– Tomorrow week (thursday) we leave England– We put it off two or three days on account of Tennyson’s christening which is to take place on tuesday (the fifth) & which he kindly wishes us to be present at .. but later than thursday we cant stay.
Oh—so happy I am, Surtees, that you were not away when the event took place. What a blessing it is!–
My dear Surtees, I am
Your faithfully affectionate sister
Ba.
<we dont go– Direct as usual. 56 [sic]. Welbeck street.> [7]
I hope you put the birth in the Times– [8] Let Papa know it, whether it makes him “angry” or pleased.
Address: Capt Surtees Cook / Wilton / Taunton / Somersetshire.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: In private collection.
1. Date provided by Taunton receiving stamp of 30 September 1852.
2. Henrietta’s second child, Mary Altham Cook (1852–1950), was born on 28 September 1852 at Wilton, Taunton.
3. Cf. Exodus 20:17.
4. Macbeth, I, 3, 22.
5. Jeannette Françoise Puyo (née Spanghe, d. 1859, aged 41), wife of François Prosper Puyo (d. 1871, aged 54) who is listed at 58 Welbeck Street in Boyle’s Fashionable Court and Country Guide for January 1852, p. 250. M. Puyo taught French at various grammar and young ladies’ schools around London.
6. Cf. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I, 2, 82–83.
7. Interpolated above the line. EBB originally wrote, then obliterated, “15 Bentinck Street. Manchester square.” The Brownings did move to Bentinck Street after all; see the beginning of letter 3129.
8. The birth was announced in The Times of 1 October 1852: “On the 28th ult., at Wilton, Taunton, the wife of Captain Surtees Cook, of a daughter.”
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