3136. EBB to Sarah Jane Cust
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 245.
London.
Monday. [Postmark: 11 October 1852]
I cant leave England, dearest Mrs Cust, without one last word to you, particularly after your last letter which was so welcome & precious to us. May God bless you & make you happy. I hold you, and so does Robert, in true affection & warm memory, and we never shall let you go from our tender thoughts, believe me. Let us find a letter from you at Florence (poste restante)– When the time comes for writing to Rome, you must write on a single sheet, but the envelopes do still for Tuscany. [1] Oh—and tell me everything about yourself, & how you get Baba to you, & how it makes you happy to hold her in your arms again & kiss her.
I am writing in chaos. Robert is like a wolf howling over the desert of this room, devastating it of books & papers– You know what a last day is– A little like The last day, perhaps. I feel confounded & at my wits’ end.
Also, the weather has been so cruel on me that I have had a good deal of cough & am beginning to lose strength. It is more than time to be gone.
I could not get the other day to the Tennyson christening after all, which was a disappointment to me. Robert went alone, & had the honour of nursing the baby for ten or twelve minutes, whereupon the Laureate observed that the newcomer had never seemed so satisfied with the world before. There is some talk of the Tennysons going to Rome, but I am sceptical.
Be happy, dearest Mrs Cust, & go on & love me as much as you can. I love you, & if wishes of mine were worth anything, you should be very very happy. I will write to you, be sure. Yes, indeed–
Here too is the letter of your servant I should have sent long ago. You are scrupulously honest, by the way– Now, goodbye—with Robert’s love as ever, I am
Your most affectionate
EBB–
Kind goodbyes to Capt Cust–
Address: Mrs Cust. / (The Private Secretary) / Vice Regal Lodge / Dublin.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection.
1. According to Murray’s A Hand-Book for Travellers in Central Italy (1850), letters in envelopes sent to Rome were “charged double” (p. 290).
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