3592. RB to William Harness

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 220.

13 Dorset St Baker St

[ca. August 1855] [1]

Dear Mr Harness.

I was sorry to be away when you called yesterday. We ought to have thanked you at once for the basketful of letters [2] which arrived duly nearly a fortnight ago.

Pray forgive, dear Mr Harness,

Yours very sincerely

Robert Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: University of Chicago.

1. Approximate dating based on the return address; the Brownings resided in Dorset Street from 12 July to 17 October 1855.

2. EBB’s letters to Miss Mitford that were sent in exchange for a selection of Miss Mitford’s letters to EBB, as reported years later by RB in a letter to Isa Blagden dated 19 January 1870 (ms at ABL). Harness was gathering Miss Mitford’s correspondence for a biography that was eventually published as The Life of Mary Russell Mitford, Related in a Selection from Her Letters to Her Friends, ed. A.G. L’Estrange (3 vols., 1870).

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