3195. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 68–79.
Florence.
April 30– [1853] [1]
My ever beloved Arabel I have your note. Even a note is precious of course—but it is’nt to take the place of the letter you owe me, if you please .. or if you dont please. I claim my letter– Arabel, I observe that your “cold” is only just now “going away”. It has therefore been a very long standing cold—a bad cough, I dare say. I do entreat you to tell me precisely & in detail how you are .. how you are looking .. whether you are thinner than usual—everything about you in fact. You are much too general for anybody as far off as I am, Arabel, and really I must hear everything about you. As for me, I hold you out a glorious example certainly in the way of writing letters– I deserve to be praised (and imitated). As Penini says of his drawings .. “Say it’s pretty! I lite you to say it’s pretty.” And we will both praise Mr Lytton who gives us warning of another special messenger. One advantage of these messengers, is, by the way, that they go faster than the post—in five days only!
To begin with what you will think not bad news, .. dear Mr Kenyon sent us the fifty pounds yesterday, apologizing for not having done it before. Of course he had forgotten it, though he does’nt say that. This piece of prosperity is balanced by an equal adversity .. the announcement that instead of receiving anything from the ship this year, we are just to pay the insurance. I suppose, in fact, that on the side of the ship, there will be no more income. Robert & I infer that it was such information that reminded Mr Kenyon of the January omission. He concludes that at so late a period we shall not go to Rome & Naples now, but put it off for next winter–!! Well—we have not made up our minds about it after all– Robert says we must talk it over & compare the means & ends quietly. If we had the money, we might still make out a month or six weeks at Rome & then go to Naples—& then to Paris, & England? Only, calculate, Arabel, how expensive this great sweep would be! Sarianna writes from Paris that she has laid by ever so much money to enjoy herself with in London, but that we must go with her, to that end, .. that we must “keep our promise to dear Arabel” .. and so on. I for my own part, cant bear to give up the thought of seeing you this summer .. oh, I dont, I do assure you. We must be patient & take it all into consideration quietly & rationally. Many things may fall out——for instance there’s Robert’s play, which may have a success, though I am not very sanguine. It’s like hanging a miniature on a wall, and high up too, & expecting effects from it. Yet the theatrical people ought to know their own trade. We shall see.
Arabel—I am to give a note of introduction to Miss Sandford who asked for one to you– Perhaps you wont like it—perhaps you wont like her. But she asked for it, & I could’nt refuse, you know. She is going to London for the summer, to her despair. Her dream is the country & silence, and her father & family drive about the world from city to city, till she talks seriously (oh quite seriously!) of dying of it. This last crisis of going to London for the summer, threatens to be fatal. “Paris is better than London.” They generally spend their winters in Paris. Very wealthy people they are—but she is unlike all her family—a peculiar person, with great earnestness & veracity of character—full of what may be called ‘soul’ .. that is, carrying sentiment into the senses, in a remarkable degree. There is unequal cultivation, otherwise—but I like her, we both like her extremely. She grows much on you as you know her. She has been most affectionate to us, & as it is for love of me that she wants to know you, you must let her, for your love’s sake to me, whether you like it or not– We have seen a great deal of her—once a week or oftener she has spent an evening with us, & really I shall miss her, & so will Robert– Also she was very kind to our Penini, which is never thrown away on me of course.
My dearest Arabel, if the “Rapping spirits” pass away, & there is no more heard of them .. if they break like a bubble .. there, will be an end, as you say. But that’s the point in doubt, you will be pleased to observe; & instead of the end, I am much inclined to believe it to be the beginning. If you see nothing extraordinary in that article in Tait, [2] certainly you are difficult to startle. Admitting the facts, (and remember, there is evidence for these or the like facts quite apart from Mr Spicer) admitting the facts, the movement appears to me most extraordinary & teeming with extraordinary consequences & inferences. It is plain also that it is about to make way in Europe—that the first steps are taken. You read of course in the Times, the table experiment at Vienna. [3] When the Times catches up a subject, that’s a sign that it is at the level of the popular interests– Otherwise, not a word, of course, from the time-serving Times! Now observe. At first the possibility of moving tables was a thing absolutely denied. Now it is no longer denied, but people think they receive it on rational principles when they say the word .. electricity. That’s a word like another—it sounds scientific—it does’nt imply a ‘soul’ .. there’s nothing objectionable therefore about it. The fact is that the table-moving is involved in the history of the Rapping spirits .. which the very same persons will maintain to be “humbug”—“deception.” You cant separate the two things. It was by the direction of the “spirits” (so called) that the “circles” were established &c. You must look back & connect one thing with another. As to ‘magnetism’, of course there is the magnetic influence & current—no one doubts it. And that the tables which are ordinarily moved must be moved by spirits external to you, I am not inclined to maintain. But that it is the action of spirit upon matter; abnormally, .. I do believe——a modification of mesmerism whatever that may be. The soul obtains an abnormal position in reference to the body in all mesmeric circumstances, & this, when intensified, admits the spiritual communications. Mr Powers imagines that the table-experiments which are being tried everywhere in Europe just now as a matter of dilet[t]ante philosophy, will be the means of making in many places what are called mediums & inducing the spiritual manifestations—he thinks it probable that this may be “the way of Providence.” Mr Lytton is expecting “a new development of Christianity.” (oh, he is’nt a Swedenborgian, Arabel—you mistake!) Mr Tennyson says it’s a device of Satan to persuade man that his will is omnipotent, and so to give him over, body & soul, to a legion of devils. (This is a pleasing mode of viewing the question.) But you may suppose how in the midst of all this visionariness, my poor Robert is in a glorious minority, trying hard to keep his ground as a denier, & well-nigh carried off his feet—oh, you ought to be with him, Arabel, for really it’s hardly fair. “I cant understand” says Mr Tennyson in his grave, slow, quiet way, “on what possible principle you can resist the evidence.” Robert has his mind open, he maintains, & is ready to believe what he shall see & hear himself. And Mr Clarke made a deep impression at the moment, I must tell you—only such impressions pass. Still Robert is inclined to try some experiments. We tried the table-experiment the other day .. Mr Tennyson, Mr Lytton, Robert & I .. & failed. We tried only for twenty minutes though—& Robert was laughing all the time .. which was wrong .. because there ought to be concentration of thought. Mr Powers brought a letter he had received the other day from a friend of his, [4] an elder in a presbyterian church, who said he had seen a table spin round under the touch of a lady & child, & was himself whirled round in a chair– Penini was fixed in attention while this letter was read, the soul leaping out of his blue eyes; & Mr Powers could’nt help dropping the conversation to say “What a splendid little fellow that is!” Oh—and I must tell you—when Penini went to bed the same night, he observed .. “Well, dear Papa & Mama! Tomollow morning, let us hope, the table will dance and pin.” (spin). The “let us hope” was magnificent. You see he is preparing already to carry out cheerfully the aspirations of his age.
Mr Powers told us that the lady [5] who had moved a table in Rome was in Florence .. that he was going to see her, & that if she could do anything worth seeing he would bring her here. Mr Powers, with all his spiritualism, has one of the most cautious, & investigating intellects, I ever met with. Such eyes that man has. They look through, as well as looking up. He was not satisfied with the experiments when he came to see them, & would not bring the lady here. Certainly the table span round—but she walked round with it, her hands touching it, & he could not be absolutely sure, he said, that unconsciously to herself (she was much excited) some movement was not given by the hands. It might not be so—but he was not convinced. He was to go again, & then would examine the case minutely. The child, (said to be stronger than the mother) was in bed, & he had not seen her. But this lady was no “medium” .. she knew nothing of the subject—she didnt believe in the Rapping spirits: she had simply been trying experiments just as we had tried them—so it was not likely that we should get much good from her. Robert is going to try the table-experiment again at Mr Powers’s, with some other gentlemen, friends of his,—but I believe the efficacy of anything of the kind depends entirely on the persons, & they may fail again. As to Mr Tennyson we are not going to draw him in—because he has “scruples”—he said the other night that it was “satisfactory to him to have failed, considering that the success wd be altogether, in his opinion, the work of the Devil.”
A most absurd conclusion surely—but .. with those views .. “to him it is unclean,” [6] and one would not draw him into it on any account, of course.
Did you read in the papers, Owen of Lanark’s ‘manifesto’? [7] Was’nt that curious? A disbelief in future existence is mixed up with his whole famous system, you know.
Mr Kenyon says in his letter yesterday, that as he does’nt believe in a world of spirits, its too great a jump for him to believe in rapping spirits .. & he laughs at me in his goodhumoured way,—but admits that in London too there are believers. Miss Bayley, who writes an enclosure, does’nt condescend to refer to the subject.
And you will be tired of it by this time. With regard to Swedenborg, my dearest Arabel, you quite mistake, if you imagine that he spiritualizes away the life & death of the Saviour. He receives the letter of the scripture everywhere, & maintains that from the letter the Church is to derive doctrine. [8] The apparent exception is the history of Adam &c—which you must be aware, very orthodox theologians have received in a typical sense: & Swedenborg says of it naïvely, that the church on earth is at liberty to understand it literally, though it is differently apprehended by the angels. But even here you cant say that he spiritualizes away—he believes historically—only understanding that of “the most ancient church,” [9] which is predicated of an individual. He respects the letter of Scripture in fact, to a degree beyond what I have been accustomed to think rational. There’s a great deal of the Jewish reverence of the words, of the form—and, to the letter, he insists, the church is to look for doctrine. At the same time he pretends to have discovered an internal sense, a spiritual sense, to the whole Scripture,—which is a part of his great doctrine of corres[pon]dence .. such as he delivers it concerning the natural & spiritual worlds, & the natural & spiritual bodies of man. [10] Oh—he is a wonderful thinker, & has hit upon deep truths touching our relations to the universe, I feel sure. He impresses me immensely, & makes me humble in regard to him even where I am inclined to think him mistaken. My dearest Arabel—The redemption of man by Christ’s life & death, he holds as fast as you do—he says that without that great humiliation of the Christ-God, the human race must have perished before now—& that no individual is saved except by the means of it. [11] It is curious in relation to these so called “spirit-manifestations,” to observe that their (the spirits’) state appears to agree exactly with Swedenborg’s account of the spirit-world (by the lower spirits)—while their differences & imperfections of opinion, as related on all sides, commends his advice to you when he says that it is not lawful for a man to receive doctrine from spirit or angel, but from only the Lord & the Word. [12]
Arabel—I had a visit the other day from <Justina Deffell.> [13] She is not charming, you know, .. she abused Italy, depreciated art, climate, scenery, in the most trenchant way—swore that all the trees were pollarded!–!!!!!– Do you understand how Robert was all but uncivil to her after that? It was the way, the manner, the tone of voice. Oh, he took such a hatred to her—he never “saw such a hateful woman in his life.” Well—she came another time, & Mr Stuart was here. When she went away, I said to him .. “There’s Robert’s detestation!” He laughed a good deal & declared that although he himself did not dislike her at all, he had been thinking she was just the woman to be displeasing to Robert. She is’nt very pleasant certainly—but it was goodnatured of her to come here twice during her week at Florence, and it is’nt her fault that she cant see beauty,—with a blind soul. We are hard upon people for mere faults of capacity & sensibility, I do think. She said that she knew all the pictures almost, by engravings, .. but that she had had pleasure in seeing some of those which she had copied herself in England.! As to the climate—she never knew it to rain six days running in England(!) .. & it rained seven in Naples .. which was vexatious certainly—& she has had rain here too .. so vexation is legitimate & exaggeration natural. Only, the peas & asparagus dont agree with her—we have had them this fortnight or three weeks—a small dish of peas at two pence halfpenny English. Think of the magnificent chesnut forests being pollarded, every tree of them!! Robert would have pollarded the lady, if he had had his own way.
We are very anxious—at least I am very anxious about our play. Did I say that before? Yes. Say nothing of it,—I would’nt for the world suggest such a thought to Robert, to whom it never seems to have occurred,—but I am haunted by the fear of the Van Muller enemy catching scent of it & coming in at the death with brutal cries as they might. [14] Those people, you see, must be irritated to the heart—& here wd be a public opportunity. So frightened I am. It’s quite extraordinary to me that Robert never seems to think of such an apparent possibility!—he who thinks of everything in general– God keep us from such an annoyance, I pray.
The poor <Hedley’s>! [15] Oh, I am so sorry for them! Both the sons to bring such grief & disgrace! <Robin> will be very much vexed. It appeared in Galignani under the head (in large letters) of “Gentlemanly English officers.” You see it is cutting short <John’s> career in all public respects [16] —because his father could not apply for even a civil office for him if dismissed the military service. I am very sorry. As to <uncle Hedley>, he has not deserved this grief from his children indeed. Tell me whatever you come to know.
Arabel—what is this about poor Maddox & her knee? [17] How is she now? I wish you would say something of my dear Minny too, whose legs, in your note before last, seemed worse than usual.
How I thank you for teazing yourself with all the trouble about my book. Of course I knew it wd not be difficult—it just requires attention & exactness—there’s a sort of knack in it. You dont tell me whether the type is like the old type—the page, the same size. They are slow, you seem to imply—which is a pity, because the book ought to be out soon to catch the season. Robert & I are very busy with our new books, [18] & he has nearly enough lyrics to print he announced to me the other day. As for me I am not so near the goal—not half way, nor a quarter, perhaps. I have work for the summer before me.
No, we saw no more of the Lindsays [19] this winter than in former ones. They are peculiar, & we dont join on somehow. The Robin Hedleys were embraced & deserted much as I was—but I believe they mean well by us all in spite of everything. I wish if you see Clara, that you would tell her, Robert was vexed to find them gone before he could give them the letter of introduction they asked for– He understood from Mr Lindsay a later day for the departure than the actual one. Arabel, you dont say one more word about Mary Hunter. Did she go to the Owens, & how does it seem to answer? Tell me something of her & her father. You ought to write to him, Arabel, I think—& if you do, mind you say that I think affectionately of both him & his.—— Well, I am delighted with the prospect of the Jamaica mines—copper & gold .. for poor dearest Papa’s sake chiefly .. & also for all of you. [20] Why, it will be sublime if you find a gold mine at Retreat. [21] Not that you personally, you darling Arabel, will care very much—just as I, in your place, would not care much– I would rather have satisfactory news of the Rapping spirits– Do you know, Arabel, I am in a state of high expectations just now—wonderful things will soon be learnt, it seems to me—but in the meantime you need’nt be afraid; I shall not go mad .. I am simply holding my eyes open .. & ears. To go back to the “mines”, .. a prosperity of that kind would be excellent even for you .. & the Refuge!!—now would’nt it?—after all?–
A most wonderful recovery Mrs Orme’s is—if it lasts– Give her my love & say how glad I am.
Have you read Bulwer’s ‘My Novel’–? Most interesting it is, after you get into it. We have just done reading it. What sort of letter this is, I am afraid to guess– Robert is talking to me about the fixed stars .. & millions of billions of miles .. which will leave you as a result an infinity of perplexities to make out my ideas which are unfixed correspondingly.
Oh, you please me so by telling me of dearest George, & his new opening. [22] It must be of good augur, I should think. As to Australia, who can be sure, or even hope steadily that £800 a year there is worth £100 in England? The accounts are not charming .. to me .. & the prices are prodigious evidently. See what Mr Howitt says of it, my dear Occy!– [23]
So you think us much happier here than in Paris. “Who knows?” as Penini is fond of saying. I liked Paris—we liked Paris– Paris was very amusing. After all, probably I have enjoyed more this last winter. In the first place, I have been better in health—much better—then, the quiet has been exquisite—we have had “books & works & healthful play” [24] (with Penini) enough to please Dr Watts,—much less me. It has been a very happy winter. Still, to stand in the magnetic current of ideas in Paris, has a great charm too. Which is best—champagne or milk? Milk, if you take it every two hours. Then, from habit, or weakness, I always like quiet, in spite of Robert’s charges against me for dissipation. It’s always an effort to me to go into society, & I never feel a moment’s depression because of a “retired life.” Then Robert seems to me not very miserable, really. And we enjoy our evenings particularly .. when it rains, & when it grows too late for a ring at the door.
So glad I am that you have put off the horrible black. [25] The new dress must be pretty too. Thank you for telling me that I may see you with my inward eyes. There’s help in the knowledge of costume. It is right to have the jacket– Have you the waistcoat .. which I see by Galignani who always gives the Parisian fashions, [26] is still in the ascendant. Nothing prettier or more convenient—yes, & more feminine-looking, when adapted properly. It would suit you—it suits everybody who is not over-broad. As for me I go on steadily wearing your gift. I never liked a gown so much in my life, I think—which is partly for your sake of course!—a curious admission.
Penini comes to ask Robert to measure him against the door, to see if he shall soon have “anoller birsday” to get “some more toys.” Indeed he has improved, Arabel. For goodness & sweetness he is an exceptional child. Wilson was saying this morning that the only thing she had to reprove him for ever, was some feat of mischief, when he cut a skein of silk in two, or hid her shoes out of fun. There’s not a rufflement of temper in the child!—which, considering his great vivacity, is extraordinary. Robert & I are both persuaded that God’s grace is in the child, making him so sweet & radiant. I know you have prayed for him, Arabel, & from the seed time of many prayers who shall question the springing of the corn? I, at least, cannot. We had a picture of a Holy family sent here the other day, & he kissed the little Jesus again & again. Robert who was looking on said, “Yes, it was very good of Jesus Christ, .. was’nt it? .. to come down & be made a little child to save Penini–”— “Oh, les! I love gentle Jesus!,” he answered fervently. So you know he has taken to give us his benediction every night. Wilson carries him in in his nightgown to say good night, & when he is at the door going away, .. he says .. he said last night .. “Dood night mine darlings! Dood night mine two flends! mine little one & mine gleat one! I hope gentle Jesus and the little lamb will tate tare of you & mate you dood.” Always he says something of the sort, & I would’nt miss such a blessing for the world. He seems to have an ‘idée fixe’ of Jesus carrying the lamb, as he has seen it in a picture, .. and one cant explain it out of his head. He is too young to have types explained, but it will do as it is for a while. The great aim should be to make a child vital in his religious thoughts—I mean that they shd not be my thoughts put into him, but his own thoughts,—not my words but his own words. There is something gained when a child thinks as naturally about God as about his toys—does’nt it appear so to you?
His argument on all occasions is that God wont like this or that. The other day I, being very busy, refused to do something he asked of me—cutting out a castle in paper it was! I have a fatal accomplishment of the kind which occasions me a great deal of trouble. He held up his hand like a “Paul at Athens.” [27] “God not lites it, when anybody wont do what anybody asks. See here. Gentle Jesus velly tind (kind) to Mama & Penini and Papa, .. so you ought to do what he says.”—— Then, changing his voice, (for I was about to controvert the application of this theology) & putting on his most coaxing smile, & kissing me kiss upon kiss .. “Tome, (come) mine dear Ba, you be dood! I not lite to see you naughty. It wont tire you velly much, I sint”– There was no resisting that of course– I yielded at once, & was rewarded (by the time I had got to the turret-windows) by a burst of gratitude––“Mine darling Ba, how velly tind you are”!– Just now he has gone out. He comes to say good bye to me with his hat on .. looking such a darling. It is sunday—Robert is at church alone, & I am writing to you because of not being very well this morning. (Oh, it is nothing .. I shall be myself tomorrow). Penini comes with the modest suggestion that he should like to go to the play to see the dancing horses, directly. I answer that he shall certainly go some day .. (it’s a day theatre .. the Goldoni [28] .. —) but that today being sunday, its out of the question—people dont go to plays when they can go to church. Penini does’nt seem quite convinced, “betause of Papa”—“where’s Papa gone to?” .. he suspects that Papa is with the dancing horses. I say .. No. “Papa is at church, saying his prayers. Dont you think that’s better?” His face lighted up in a moment, .. “Oh, les!” said he!– “Dear gentle Jesus!” Kissing up into the air. You never saw such a shining, angelical little face!—— In a moment after, he had run off, but returned in haste to tell me that “tomollow” he means to go the “races” [29] in the morning, and to the “play” in the evening—(there’s a programme of dissipation for you!) & that in the meantime he shall go to Boboli gardens, & then pay a visit to Girolama. “And I spect (expect) Olama will be at the window looting out for me. Who knows?” Off he runs at the height of good spirits.
Has Alfred taken actual possession of the situation you mention [30] —& will it take him from London? Tell me everything, for I am anxious.
I am doubtful about <Annie Hayes>, [31] because you only hint at what you have heard. If it is anything decided & authentic, you certainly should not visit her—there can be no question about that. And what you say sounds very threatening. [32] Ah—poor <Annie Hayes>!– When I think of her in the days gone so far by, & hear this discord against that keynote! How lovely she looked! how her mother [33] loved her!– But there was always a defect of love in her, whether of the natural or spiritual affection.
There are races, English & Italian, at the Cascine just now .. but nobody from this house has been to them. Wilson was going to take Penini one morning, & got into an omnibus which ran up against a wall & frightened her—whereupon she came home.
It’s a lovely, lovely May day! It makes me look back. <Justina Deffell> [34] will forgive Florence for once—— By the way here’s Robert’s last word of crossness against her—he wrote it in pencil & threw it to me, promising that he wdnt be cross anymore.–
How much upon a level
Lie these expressions two–
We see just-in-a Devil
What we see just in you.
Have you seen Mary Ruxton?
How are dearest Trippy’s household affairs going on? Give her some kisses from me & say that I dearly love & think of her. Here’s a tolerably long letter I think. Now, Arabel, if you dont write to me!– This letter had to go to London—or I owe one to that dearest dear Henrietta who will be surely complaining of me & <thinks> perhaps that I dont think of her as much as I do. Ah—if I were to get to London this summer I should see her as well as you!– God bless you all–
My darling Arabel, take care of yourself, & write to me. Robert’s true love as at all times– Mine to everybody–
Your ever attached Ba–
Address: Miss Barrett / 50 Wimpole Street. / London.
Publication: EBB-AB, I, 570–581.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Year provided by postmark.
3. In The Times for 20 April 1853, a report entitled “‘Table Moving’ in Vienna,” filed by “a correspondent,” contained the following: “Yesterday evening the experiment was tried in my presence, at the house of a friend. A round veneered dining table, having three stout legs … was placed on the ‘parquetted’ floor … of the room. Round the table three ladies and five gentlemen placed themselves, and formed a magnetic chain, which is effected by each person laying his hands lightly on the margin of the table and placing the little finger of his right hand on that of his neighbour’s left. … After the experiment had lasted about an hour the table began to exhibit an almost imperceptible undulating movement. Some minutes after it was convulsively jerked to the right and left, and, finally, it turned to the right on its own axis with such velocity that the persons forming the chain, who had in the mean time risen, were obliged to run in order to keep pace with the new-fashioned locomotive” (p. 8).
4. Unidentified.
5. Unidentified.
6. Romans 14:14.
7. Robert Owen (1771–1858), socialist reformer and philanthropist, had implemented many of his progressive theories at his mills in New Lanark, near Glasgow in the early part of the century and later at his experimental community in New Harmony, Indiana. He had recently published a pamphlet entitled Manifesto of Robert Owen To All Governments and Peoples (dated London, 30 March 1853), in which he related his personal study of spiritual manifestations: “Until the commencement of this investigation, a few weeks since, I believed that all things are eternal, but that there is a constant change in combinations and their results, and that there was no personal or conscious existence after death” (pp. 1–2).
8. In The True Christian Religion (1847), Swedenborg states that “the doctrine of the church ought to be drawn from the literal sense of the word” (p. 270).
10. Swedenborg defines “correspondence” in A Treatise Concerning Heaven and its Wonders, also Concerning Hell (1823): “The whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world, not only the natural world in general, but also in every particular; wherefore whatever exists in the natural world from the spiritual, this is said to be correspondent. … Inasmuch as man is a heaven and a world in the least form after the image of the greatest, therefore there is appertaining to him both a spiritual world and a natural world … whatsoever therefore in his natural world, that is, in his body and its senses and actions, exists from his spiritual world, that is, from his mind and its understanding and will, is called correspondent” (pp. 55–56).
11. In The True Christian Religion (1847) Swedenborg declares that “the passion of the cross was the uniting of the Lord’s Humanity with the Divinity of the Father, but that it was not redemption; for this consisted in subduing the hells, and restoring the heavens to order; and that unless the Lord, during his abode in the world, had accomplished these works, no one could have been saved either on earth or in heaven” (p. 170).
12. Swedenborg writes that “speaking with spirits … rarely with Angels of heaven” is permitted but they do not teach, “for the Lord alone teaches man, but mediately through the Word” (Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Providence, Boston, 1840, p. 123).
13. Justina Deffell (1808–76), second daughter of John Henry Deffell (1777–1847) and his wife Elizabeth (née Mackenzie, 1786–1871). Miss Deffell is listed in Women Artists in Nineteenth-Century France and England by Charlotte Yeldham (1984). The Deffells were acquaintances of the Moulton-Barretts through their Jamaican interests (see letter 2711, note 8). The name was obliterated after receipt, probably by Arabella.
14. EBB feared that Martha von Müller, who had been awarded an £800 settlement in her breach of promise suit against RB, Sr. (see letter 3060, note 2), would use the occasion of the play to broadcast the fact she had never been paid.
15. The name here and those below were obliterated after receipt, probably by Arabella.
16. EBB refers to her cousin John Hedley. An article in the 20 April 1853 issue of Galignani’s Messenger, headed “Gentleman-like English Officers,” contained the following: “A general court-martial assembled at Preston on the 7th inst. for the trial of Lieutenants Shirley, Dashwood, Hedley and Fawcett, of the 50th (Queen’s Own) Regiment, and closed its proceedings on the 13th. … It appears that on the evening of 17th March, ‘St. Patrick’s Day,’ some altercation took place in the officer’s mess room between Lieut. Shirley and Ens. Leeds, and others; Lieutenants Shirley and Hedley, using disgusting, insulting, and threatening language towards Ens. Leeds, which ended by Lieutenants Shirley, Hedley, Dashwood, and Fawcett forcibly taking Ensign Leeds to a pump, and pumping on him.” Documents in the Public Record Office, London, indicate that Hedley and his fellow officer Lieut. Shirley were found guilty of these deeds and were “Dismissed from H.M. Service” (WO92/2). Hedley’s dismissal took effect on 8 June 1853 (The London Gazette, 1855, I, 1279). The other Hedley son who had brought “grief & disgrace” was George Hedley, who had run up considerable debts.
17. Mary Maddox (1793–1865), a dressmaker and seamstress in Ledbury, was the subject of verses by EBB, first published in Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Hitherto Unpublished Poems and Stories, ed. H. Buxton Forman (Boston, 1914), pp. 126–128.
18. RB’s Men and Women (1855) and EBB’s Aurora Leigh (1857).
19. Clara and Martin Lindsay.
20. An article in The Morning Chronicle of 23 April 1853 (p. 7) contained the following item from the County Union, a Montego Bay newspaper: “Gold in Jamaica.—We state, on the most perfect authority, that several lumps of metal, pronounced by parties competent to form an opinion to be gold, have been picked up in Hector’s River, forming, we believe, the boundaries of Manchester and Trelawny [parishes], and that they have been forwarded to Kingston to be analyzed.” In the same article it was announced that “a copper mine with a vein of beautiful malachite has been discovered at Jamaica.” Some three months later, George Goodin Barrett wrote to EBB’s father from Jamaica, asking him to consider speculating in a copper mining company: “Never was such a show of ore of the best & most abundant” (ms at Eton). Edward Moulton Barrett replied on 1 September 1853 that, in his opinion, “the immense expences attendant on working the Mines” would cause “the expectation of large profits” to be “woefully disappointed” (ms at Eton).
21. Retreat Pen, Moulton-Barrett plantation and Charles John’s principal residence in St. Ann’s Parish, Jamaica, was situated near the eastern border of Trelawny Parish, not a great distance from the gold find.
22. George Moulton-Barrett had recently been appointed to a parliamentary commission authorized to investigate corruption in the 1852 election at Clitheroe. A motion to create the commission, mentioning him by name as “George Goodin Barrett,” was presented in the House of Commons on 12 April 1853. The ensuing debate, reported by The Times the next day, featured several political heavyweights, including Richard Cobden, Lord John Russell, and Benjamin Disraeli. The motion carried by a substantial majority. On 1 August 1853 the commission’s findings were laid before the House, and, as a result, the election of John Thomas Aspinall as M.P. for Clitheroe was ruled void (see The Times, 15 August 1853, p. 5).
23. William Howitt (1792–1879), husband and literary collaborator of Mary Howitt, lived in Australia from September 1852 until August 1854. He described the living conditions in the Australian cities and gold fields in a series of letters to England, many of which appeared in The Times. In the issue of 1 March 1853, he wrote in detail about the scandalous prices and noted that a house which would rent for £10 a year in England cost £200 per year in Australia. He also mentioned the harsh conditions, referring to “hardships and severity of labour that men accustomed to offices and banks are totally unfitted for” (p. 6). In a letter The Times published on 9 April 1853, Howitt gave an account of his 250-mile expedition to the “Owens diggings” and the situation he found there. “The season has been frightfully unhealthy, and the journey to the gold fields has been fatal to many. Thousands have been struck down by illness; hundreds have already returned, cursing the parties who sent them such onesided statements of the gold fields and the climate. … The little black fly of Australia is a perfect devil. The grass seeds in summer, which pierce your legs like needles … the dust winds, and the violent variations of the atmosphere … these are nuisances which ought to be well known” (pp. 8–9). Howitt’s letters served as a basis for his Land, Labour, and Gold; or, Two Years in Victoria (1855).
24. Cf. Isaac Watts, “Against Idleness and Mischief” (1814), line 13.
25. Arabella had worn mourning dress for Mary Elizabeth Graham-Clarke, who had died on 7 October 1852, and more recently for Arabella Addams (see the end of letter 3177).
26. Galignani’s Messenger carried advertisements around this time from various Parisian shops offering assortments of barèges and jackets.
27. As depicted in Raphael’s cartoon, “St. Paul Preaching at Athens,” for the tapestries in the Sistine Chapel; see Acts 17:22–33.
28. “Teatro Goldoni, in the Via S. Maria, on the south side of the Arno; connected with it is a day theatre, or Arena, an open place for various spectacles” (Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Northern Italy, 1852, p. 543).
29. Perhaps these were held in anticipation of the Feast of the Ascension (5 May 1853), which “is kept as a species of popular jubilee; every body makes holiday. The Cascine, in particular, [is] filled with family parties … taking their merry banquets” (Handbook, p. 544).
30. Alfred had been offered a position “in some steam company of £500 a year” (see letter 3193). From EBB’s remark in letter 3201, it seems nothing came of this offer: “As to Alfred, he loses the clerkship, I fear.”
31. The name here and below has been obliterated after receipt, probably by Arabella.
32. EBB alludes to her old friend’s marital problems. See letter 2716, in which her husband’s conduct is described by EBB as “detestable, past believing almost.”
33. Ann Boyd (née Lowry, d. 1834, aged 47), had married Hugh Stuart Boyd on 16 September 1805.
34. The name has been obliterated after receipt, probably by Arabella.
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