3177. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 8–11.
[Florence]
[ca. 15 March 1853] [1]
I hear that Robert has told you two very wrong things, dearest Sarianna, .. that I am very unwell, & that we are not likely to go to England or Paris this year– I beg you not to believe either of these pieces of information which I am quite vexed with him for conveying to you .. but you know his way of dashing out with his own impressions of the moment just as if they were meant for stereotype. As for me, I shall be quite well tomorrow or next day– My chest, which has the only real seed of evil belonging to me, is well just now, .. & the influx of spring weather has almost carried away the slight access of cough which the cold brought me– Also I am persevering & flourishing in the use of your oil, & shall be at full liberty, out of door liberty, I hope, in a day or two. So much for me. Then for the matter of our plans … dont imagine that I (or Robert either indeed) has given up Paris for this year .. no, nor London. I mean to be in Paris, I assure you,—& I dont think it likely upon the whole that I shall leave Robert behind me. I suppose, what he wanted in saying what he says he has said to you, was to prevent your counting upon us—& certainly you will be right in not counting on us, seeing that, what with others & what with ourselves, we float much without a rudder. Only that we shall settle in Paris, has never been a moot point with us, be sure—notwithstanding that you would frighten us with the climate. Oh—if the climate were worse, or even no better than that of London, it would be pure madness, my attempting to live in it—but you dont convince even Robert, much less me– Happily for you & all of us, dearest Sarianna, you have not that sense in the lungs which makes me aware of certain differences in climate—Tanto meglio!– [2] The appeal to vegetation is the decisive thing, of course– And I should like you to explain to me how it is that vineyards surround Paris, while no vine will bear fruit in England, even in Devonshire, except against walls & in sheltered situations—and why also, they have all sorts of vegetables & fruits six weeks or two months sooner than in England, as you will find in the spring– The other day I heard English people who had spent the greater part of twenty years’ winter in Paris, [3] wondering at the difference in the climate which they considered more than proportionate to the degree of greater proximity to the south. As to laurels, M. Milsand is an oracle with me on many subjects, .. but if laurels dont grow in Paris .. which I never heard of before .. the reason cant be in the climate. Laurels dont care for heat– I happen to know a great deal about them, through our old acquaintance in Herefordshire––where .. in a very bleak situation, close to the Malvern Hills, they grow beautifully– We had shrubberies of them at Hope End, & Papa used to say they were one of the hardiest of shrubbery-trees.
Dearest Sarianna, if you imagine that while you are freezing in Paris, our friends in England are basking in the sun, never was a greater mistake– Dont you observe in the English weather-report, as declared in Galignani, that for thirty eight years there has not been such cold at the time of year? [4] Arabel says she is shrivelled up with it. And my father (which if you knew him you would think an expressive fact) submits to stay in the house for the first time in his life almost. It is exceptional weather everywhere. My cousins [5] on their way to Rome were snowed up at Viterbo & had to wait a day. An aunt of mine [6] has been snowed up for a month in the north of England in a country house .. I mean literally, & that the roads were not passable for carriages. So I hear from Arabel. So take up heart both of you. I do hope you may have sunshine soon. At this time last year, indeed throughout March, we were forced in the Champs Elysées to let out our fires everyday—they were lighted only for the morning & evening. —Here there is sudden spring, & our hearts seem to leap up [7] to thank God for it.
Our taking on this house only means that it is a place to keep our goods in till they can be removed to Paris. We should have had otherwise to take a room observe. Also there is little in these rooms which would suit a Parisian apartment. We could only take with us some of the carved wood & ornamental things—and altogether it seems wiser to provide ourselves with a habitation in Paris before we begin to transplant these possessions. Then, this house more than pays itself—it clashes with nothing else. I believe Robert took it on to please me—indeed I know he did .. dearest & kindest as he always is .. but I begged him to consider the whole question & decide as appeared to him best—& I hope it did really appear to him best to decide as he did.
As to yourselves, my dearest Sarianna, we shall be upon you, be sure, & then we shall creep into a hole at your side. Meanwhile, I do think you are perfectly right in not staying on to the profit of Mrs Thomas. [8] Observe, that the French, if ever they come for six months to Paris, dont take a furnished apartment. At the same time, Robert & I, on making enquiries, came to the conclusion that hiring furniture was scarcely a good plan. You know it is only buying it dearer .. when you consider. If I were you, I would buy at once what are necessaries, & get the luxuries by degrees. You never would repent a cheap purchase of this kind .. and Mr Burns, [9] if his own account of himself be a reliable one, would be useful to you in this matter. He offered his services to Robert, I remember.
Consider this– If you had losses by selling your furniture (supposing the probability of your wanting to selling [sic] it) you would not lose as much money as you necessarily lose under present arrangements, or under the system of hiring furniture. I am sure you never would repent it. Also, you would not be shackled in the least– You could let your Paris apartment, & go elsewhere for a time, if you chose, at any time. —Here, I am writing with Penini sitting on my knee & making conversation, which, though improving otherwise of course, is scarcely favorable to the construction of an intelligible letter. He was delighted with the burning mountain & the poem, & thanks Nonno [10] over & over. You must make allowances for the ink-letter, .. as “liting in int” says the author, “is so velly diftil.” (Difficult) He had the cruelty to tell me last night that “Napoleon’s wife” had put in the “new-papers” that he was to give me, for the future, only “halfpenny kisses,” as the “large paul kisses” were all to go to “Papa”. That’s dreadful political news for me! I am preparing an insurrection.
I am delighted that Mrs Smith [11] appreciates my child. Oh, he is such a darling! On his birthday, I gave him a box of letters,—& Robert gave him a railway .. a beautiful German toy, which is the delight of his soul. We spent some ten shillings English in this extravagance. He ordered dinner for what he called his “festa” .. a turkey & plum-pudding & we had crumpets & galette– By the way do you ever try the French “galette”? It is excellent.
Dont blaspheme against our M. Milsand, by calling him an “English Tory”– Oh no– On free trade he is behindhand, as the French are in the gross .. but a tory .. oh no. Arabel is easier now, thank God, & so am I about my brother .. who escapes the bankruptcy [12] .. we begin to hope. She is in mourning again .. for cousins [13] .. I hope the bad presentiments will keep out of the sphere of reality. Love to Mrs Corkran. So sorry I am about her anxiety. [14]
God bless you. Robert hurries me.
Your ever affectionate sister
Ba–
Best of loves to dear Nonno–
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to residing at the Champs Élysées address in Paris the previous March. Day and month suggested by her mention of Pen’s birthday (9 March).
2. “So much the better.”
3. The Wills-Sandfords.
4. We have been unable to trace this particular reference to the cold in Galignani’s Messenger. EBB may have seen one of several reports in The Times that contained the weekly temperature readings from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. From 9 February to 10 March 1853, the newspaper ran five such reports, all of which stated that the mean temperature for the week in London was below “the average of the same week in 38 years” (see issues of 9, 17, 24 February and 3, 10 March 1853).
5. The Robin Hedleys.
6. Aunt Bummy.
7. Cf. Wordsworth, “My Heart Leaps Up” (1807), line 1.
8. Sarianna and RB, Sr.’s landlady in Paris.
9. Miles Byrne; see letter 3029, note 3.
10. “Grandfather.”
11. Anne Carmichael-Smyth, mother of William Makepeace Thackeray, who evidently met the Brownings the previous winter in Paris (see letter 2979).
13. i.e., for the family of the recently deceased Arabella Addams (see letter 3172, note 14). The Addamses lived in Gloucester Place, close by Wimpole Street.
14. In letter 3186 to Louisa Corkran, EBB writes: “I heard with pain that you had illness among your dear children.”
___________________
