3126. EBB to Sarah Jane Cust
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 232–233.
58. Welbeck street.
September 29th [1852] [1]
Dearest Mrs Cust, I write one word to tell you that we are about to leave England for Italy on thursday (tomorrow) week. We shall remain a week or two, more or less, in Paris,—& then, our plan is to go to Florence, where we may linger a little, en route to Rome & Naples. It was settled quite suddenly, when we had given up the Italian dream as dreams are given up: suddenly the realization of it became possible. And now .. you will write to us .. wont you? .. you will let us hear from you & of you, as much as you choose we shall know,—for we are anxious, anxious, anxious, to know .. before we leave England. Have you Baba with you? are you getting acclimatized in Dublin? are you civilizing the natives at all?
We had meant to go next tuesday—but Tennyson asks us to be present at his christening on that very day, and I should like it & Robert would like it .. so we put off the setting-out day on purpose .. otherwise England is not safe for me just now, and the fogs of London, which have begun already, have exasperated my cough to a very unpleasant degree. Incredible weather we have had for september, if this were not England where everything bad in the way of weather is most credible.
You will write, wont you? We shall both be very vexed to have to leave England without a good, true, & full account of you, dearest Mrs Cust.
I am in great haste—making pet[t]icoats for Wiedeman .. & buying summer vestures generally, .. which, in this winter cold, requires some imagination in order to adapt the thoughts to the necessity of such things. But we are going to Italy–
God bless you–
Do write—that’s my last word– Wiedeman has learnt a great deal of English, .. heaps of nursery rhymes, .. & boasted the other day, “Peninni know plampity poems” .. (a quantity of poems).
Robert’s best love with that of
your own affectionate
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
<15. Bentinck street, Manchester Square. (Observe we have changed our house.)> [2]
Will you offer our kind regards to Mr Cust?
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address; the only year the Brownings resided at 58 Welbeck Street was 1852.
2. Passage in angle brackets is reconstructed, having been obliterated by EBB.
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