3501. EBB to Mary Elizabeth Sunderland
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 32.
Casa Guidi.
Dec. 16. [1854] [1]
My dear Mrs Sunderland I scarcely know how to thank you. You have sent us a most pretty & useful present—there it is, doing duty already on the table!—& the constancy & kindness of your care for us make a thought pleasanter than the gift itself. Thank you, thank you.
Yes, we missed you. The time went past & you did not come, & I knew something had gone wrong & that you would not venture on Florence till the warmer weather. I for my own part, have gone into prison & shut the door—but I am well, & so are we all. As to little Penini he has grown quite sturdy & rosy, & we need not regret for him that we did not migrate to the mountains last summer– We all of us thank you for your affectionate wishes for our happiness together on the coming year– May it be well & happy with you also. May the sun of this world shine on you, and the spiritual sun behind it!– [2]
I hear it is very gloomy in England, through bereavements by war & bereavements by cholera, & fears & anxieties about the dearest. They say it has grown a sort of ‘fashion’ to wear black or grey, apart from domestic losses– I suppose you think a great deal, as we all do, of the Crimea, & of what is to come next, & of who is to go next .. though I hope you have no near relation or friend in the east, to be fearful about especially. My sister’s husband is threatening to go out to the seat of war .. which will be sad for her and her two babies, both younger than my child is.
I have not heard very lately from the Ogilvys, which is my fault, as I did not write when I should have done so. The days creep on we scarcely know how,—the busy days & the happy days. They are slower when one has to suffer in them.
So perhaps we shall see you in May, before we set our faces northwards, to go to Paris & London– Meanwhile thank you much for the offer of the books—but we have access to a Fraser here, and to ‘Household words’ too, I think.
May God bless you. Robert joins me in remaining, dear Mrs Sunderland
gratefully & affectionately yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to the Crimean War.
2. Swedenborg’s notion of a spiritual sun, as the expression of divine love, occurs throughout his writings.
___________________
