3191. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 60–64.
Florence.
April 13. [1853] [1]
My dearest Mrs Martin, I hear that you are asking where I am? I asked for a long time where you were, having fancied you were in Devonshire! Then, when I heard, I still put off writing because we were in doubt about Rome where we have been on the verge of setting out these two months. Even now it is not fixed that we shall not go. We wish it very much, but circumstances have hitherto been overstrong for us. After all I feel myself guilty before you, & have called myself ever so often an ungrateful creature for using your desk as I have been doing indefatigably throughout the winter, without sending you a letter from it. You know how it is when people put off & put off. Only believe that I have thought of you & loved you & wished to hear from you faithfully & constantly—my faults are not of the thought & feeling. And also, you have been rather guilty to me, now have’nt you? Write, I beg of you, & tell me a good deal about you both.
When we came from England I was, as usual, only rather worse than usual, in a melancholy way with a cough. We were imprudent enough, being beguiled by the warmth at Lyons & my improvement, to cross the Mont Cenis, the consequence of which was that I was fairly laid up at Genoa & had to stay there ten days. Oh, I thought it was all up with me, that time, I assure you. I was worn to the bone—miserable to look at. But the divine climate revived me as usual, and what with the air, & what with the cod’s liver oil & asses milk I have lived on since I came here, the cough has gone, the wasting ceased, .. I have had an excellent winter of it, .. & am quite fresh now .. ready to go to Constantinople, where the American minister has pressed us to pay him a visit. You may smile incredulously .. but I assure you, if it were not for the expense of the voyage, we would go. I should like it extremely, & Robert is not behind me an inch .. and our little Wiedeman, who has Arab blood in him somehow, & laughs through all the perils of travelling, would be no impediment, not he– “Are you never tired, you child” I said to him after one exhausting day– “Oh no, nemmer!” was the answer. But we shant go to Constantinople, & what we shall do, is less certain.
We have had a most happy winter at Florence .. at home, as I always feel it to be, .. in the midst of our own chairs & tables—very quiet, & very busy, .. two good elements of enjoyment after all. I enjoyed Paris beside, as you know, .. and so did Robert—and he feels the still life here a little still after all that rush & roar of life,—he feels more a want than I do, I think. And yet we both like both .. there’s the truth. And we mean to go back to Paris .. there’s the conclusion! In spite of which we have taken on our apartment here for another year, till May twelvemonth, & may not give it up even then. I doubt sometimes whether I should hold out beyond two winters running, in the north—and its well not to shut the door behind one’s back. Then we lose nothing with this apartment as it can always be let:—and then, I have a love for it, which is the strongest reason after all. Robert could’nt give it up when he looked into my grave face, he said.
Not one evening has even he been out, throughout this winter. We have stayed here, dreaming over the fire, reading heaps of books, from M. Proudhon to Emanuel Swedenborg inclusively,—little Wiedeman, who is an absolute Cæsar in the house, breaking in on our discussions occasionally with a “Dont peat (speak) Papa & Mama! you saying nossing at all”—which meant that the character of the conversation, was’nt by any means interesting to him. He did’nt mean anything more pert than that, though a wiser interrupter might have done so probably– French novels I have had besides– I cant get on without French novels. Robert marvels at me (at the degree of transition, I mean) when I put down Alexandre Dumas to take up Emanuel Swedenborg—but I like holding the world by two handles. As for him, he is as fond of digging at Vasari as I am at the Mystics, & goes to and from him as constantly, making him a “betwixt & between” to other writers. We have been writing too .. & I have been busy in a revision of a third edition of my poems, which is to come out soon. Also I have embroidered two frocks for my child. See how busy we have been!
Then, though we dont go out, we have visitors at home—people (.. chiefly men ..) who come in the evening for tea & talk. Among them, Mr Tennyson, the laureate’s elder brother, who lives in Florence & has married an Italian wife, a contadina, [2] with the undisturbed simplicities of rustic life full on her. He is a most refined & cultivated person, and we like him particularly for his truth & uprightness. As for Robert he quite loves him. Then, there is Mr Lytton, Sir Edward’s only child, .. a very young man of course, but interesting in various ways, with good & pure aspirations,—clean of the world, so far. He is attached to the embassy, but is sublimely indifferent to the advantages of his profession & position. “What can one be at best, but secretary of state?” You may suppose he is not a common young man. I suspect him of being poetical,—which would be fatal to anybody but the heir of Knebworth.
There are relays of Americans too, who sweep us with their passing wings, & bring us the last news of the Rapping spirits. I hear they have caught one in London & are showing him up in Household Words & elsewhere. Very well. Mr Lewes especially, fresh from Comte’s atheism, has been convincing on the subject. I have no objection whatever. In fact, the London spirits may be absolute humbug for aught that I know—these shows for money are often questionable things. But twenty failures in mesmerism do not to me impugn the fact of mesmerism—and nothing said or proved in London just now, disproves the verity of a most extraordinary movement in America, common to all classes of society—an increasing movement, in which the intelligence of the country is mixed up. I have no right to give an opinion—but the evidence is strong & strengthening, without doubt– Mrs Jameson says to me that if I could hear the amount of nonsense talked in London about the ‘spirits’ it would’nt commend the subject to me. No amount of nonsense talked upon any subject would discommend it to me, I think. The most nonsense is talked of the most important subjects, such as politics .. or religion. People dont talk nonsense generally about cross stitch or hemming frills. Now do they?
I have good news from England for the most part– Henrietta gets on well with her two babies, both of which are prodigies of size it appears. She said something to me not long ago of its being on the cards, .. in the possibilities .. that Surtees might be sent to Ireland. I hope this possibility is not a probability. Their house seems so comfortable & they have achieved the furnishing of it so much after their minds, that it would be a pity for that reason, as well as others, to have them transplanted. Surtees’s sister, an old favorite of Henrietta’s, is staying with them just now, [3] or was, a short time ago– In Wimpole street they are going on much as usual. My poor Arabel has been in great anxiety about Alfred of whose difficulties you have probably heard– I am vexed with him altogether—but there seems to be a little more light in his affairs, & there is hope of his getting clear of them at last. [4]
Robin Hedley & his new wife have been using their first moons in Italy. He is radiant with happiness & made a very pleasant impression on us both, with his frankness & manliness. She is rather pretty, & quite pleasing & good, it seems to me. They are now gone north, through Paris to England.
Will you tell me of the Miss Commelines. Do you hear how they bore the horrible catastrophe at Redmarley. [5] What a misfortune!
How are you both minded about public affairs? Lord Aberdeen added to Lord John is the drag up hill I fancy, and Sir William Molesworth’s going out is not a favorable sign [6] —and the education measure is not large & stringent enough to please me much. [7] Compulsory education is my dogma—is it yours? The bribery, disclosed of late to stink in the nostrils of the world, [8] only proves what I have often maintained, that our “represent[at]ive system” represents anything but the people’s opinions. Some of their vices, perhaps. What of France? We had a letter the other day from one of the most conscientious thinkers in France, [9] a writer in the ‘Revue des deux mondes’ who says that there is not much to complain of in his opinion, .. that what they wanted was a stable foundation in order to the future development of liberal institutions, & this is attained. You see he is expecting still—so am I .. so is France. It is not the end. “What’s to be said for a woman,” says my husband, “who believes in Louis Napoleon & the Rapping spirits?” Why, that she’s open to conviction still.
Mrs Trollope has been ill with an attack of bronchitis but is better, & gone to Pisa for change of air. Her daughter in law has surprised & charmed the house by a little girl-baby, after some six years of marriage. I am very glad for them all. Now do, dearest friend, write to me, & give a particular account of both of you. Robert’s cordial regards—& my best love to you both. May God bless you.
Your ever affectionate
Ba–
Do mention your dear little niece & when you heard last of her. [10]
Address: Madame Martin / Poste Restante / Pau / Basses Pyrenées / France.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. “Peasant.”
3. Susannah Cook; see letter 3174, note 8.
4. A further reference to Alfred’s debts; see letter 3121, note 2.
5. The Rev. James Commeline, Jr. (1789–1853), who had followed his father as Rector of Redmarley D’Abitot in 1837, had died on 26 January as the result of severe burns he had received when his bed caught on fire the night of the 24th. A coroner’s inquest, as reported in Berrow’s Worcester Journal (3 February 1853, [p. 3]), revealed that “for the last six months deceased’s lower extremities had been paralysed, and he was carried to bed by the butler and groom, who, in turn, slept in a room adjoining their master’s.” At a quarter past eleven on the night of the 24th, the groom “hearing something fall in his master’s room, and the deceased cry ‘fire,’” ran into the room and found the “bed and curtains in flames.” EBB is enquiring about his sisters: Ann, Maria, and Laura; see letter 2889, note 9.
6. William Molesworth (1810–55), 8th Baronet, Radical M.P. for Southwark, had received an appointment in Lord Aberdeen’s cabinet as first commissioner of the board of works and remained in that post until the change of government in 1855. EBB may have heard rumours concerning antagonism between Molesworth and other members of the cabinet, though we have been unable to substantiate them. A clash could have occurred over the Clergy Reserves Bill that had recently been before the House of Commons. This bill, which Molesworth had championed in a speech in early March, concerned the disposition of Church of England landed property in Canada. After the bill’s second reading, the cabinet decided to delete its third clause that dealt specifically with the funding of stipends. During the course of the ensuing debate, Benjamin Disraeli stood up for the Tories and asked Molesworth whether he gave “his complete adhesion to the present policy of the Government” (The Morning Post, 19 March 1853, p. 4). Molesworth did not respond. An editorial, entitled “The Ministry.—Symptoms of Disruption” (The Lancaster Gazette, 26 March 1853, pp. 4–5), speculated that if “he [Molesworth] approved of the course recommended … he would, for the sake of the administration, and to prevent the ugly surmises that must otherwise arise, have got up and said as much.”
7. The Times of 5 April 1853, in its coverage of proceedings in the House of Commons the day before, carried Lord John Russell’s lengthy speech introducing the government’s “Bill for the Promotion of Education in Cities and Boroughs in England.” Although the bill advocated an increase in borough tax rates in order to improve the quality of, and increase attendance in, schools, there was no provision for compulsory attendance. In England, compulsory education did not begin until 1880 (at that time for children ages five to ten).
8. Cf. Amos 4:10.
9. Joseph Milsand.
10. Letitia Brabazon (1839–56).
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