3414. EBB to Thomas Chase

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 216–217.

43. Via Bocca di Leone. 3d piano.

Friday. [?12] [May 1854] [1]

Mr & Mrs Browning will have much pleasure in receiving Mr Chase [2] tomorrow morning at half past ten, if the hour should not appear to him too early–

Address: Thomas Chase Esqre.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Month and year provided by reference to SD1758, in which Chase describes his visit to the Brownings in Rome. The day is suggested by Chase’s implication in SD1758 that he called on the Brownings towards the end of his stay there. According to Edward Spring, friend and fellow traveller, he and Chase were in Rome from 22 April to 24 May 1854 (see Italia, unpublished ms at Wellesley).

2. Thomas Chase (1827–92), classical scholar, was the second son and third child of Anthony Chase (1791–1879), of Worcester, Mass., and his wife Lydia (née Earle, 1798–1852). A graduate of Harvard, Chase spent two years travelling and studying in Europe before accepting a teaching position at Haverford College in 1855. He later served as its president from 1875 to 1886. For an account of his visit to the Brownings in Rome, as well as an evening with them in Florence, see SD1758.

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