3511. Harriet G. Hosmer to EBB & RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 56–59.
Rome
Jan 19th [1855] [1]
Dearest Mr & Mrs Browning.
(I am always in doubt whether this or ‘dearest friends’ seems least old-maidish) So I am a “bad, unkind, frail & forgetting Hatty”—& I deny it all—bad, though, I certainly am for I ought to have answered your nice letter long ago; but letter-writing is not my forte & some how or other I grow worse & worse about it. It is not, however, that I love less, but hate writing more & if you knew how often you are wished for in Rome you would have faith like a mustard-pot [2] that your memory is as dear to my heart as its aorta, an expression in which want of sentiment is made up for in anatomical force. & then added to my natural defects relative to letter-writing I am continually boiling over which has the same effect as throwing cold water on all my efforts. Whether it is really thought to be consoling or whether it is merely bitter mockery, I cant say, but the majority of my friends seem endeavoring to support me in my affliction by recounting the number of their friends who have had sixty or eighty boils consecutively & having survived all wretchedly enjoy pretty good health afterwards—do you know that two more have just been added to the list making now sixteen, a small number when compared with eighty & very consoling to think I may possibly have but sixty-four more—however I won’t edify you through the whole of my letter by harping on my string of Jobs. [3] At present I style Pantaleoni my cook for I am subsisting chiefly on very nasty medicine which he gives me. He says I must never spend another summer in Italy.
Now, dear Mrs Browning, first of all the comb comes into my head: [4] in a figurative sense: I have made due inquiries at Mrs Sartoris’ about it but nobody seems to know anything of it & they say it is quite a mistake that it was given to any of them: I read your description of it to Annie [5] but no satisfactory light appeared to dawn upon her—it is yet possible it may be discovered in which case I shall secure it.
You ask about Page ‘and that wretched Mrs Page’, [6] & wretched she is if all accounts are true– I suppose she has behaved about as vilely as possible. They say that before she went away she provided herself with a fine wardrobe & contracted no end of debts which of course were left for her husband to pay. It seems she left Rome with a false passport & joined Cerella [sic] in Albano: Pantaleoni told me he was coming to Rome for her but he succeeded in having him stopped on the way but at all events he got as far as Albano– Some say they are in Naples but I believe they are somewhere in Sicily. God knows where—did you ever know such a thing? Page himself told me she was on her way to America but nobody believes that; but then he said with a very peculiar emphasis “if she ever gets as far as America I don’t suppose she will ever come back”. He is not very well, suffering from cold; I have not seen him for several days. Certainly that man has had his share of trouble & I am inclined to think his daughters are not the joy of his heart. The only thing I wonder at is that he could allow that fellow to be in his house so much & Mrs Page never stirred a foot without him—either he was blind & couldn’t see or he wouldn’t see—which was the worst?
I hear such good accounts from everybody of my Aunty [7] who is as bad, I think worse, than I am & never writes a line about herself—however if she is getting better that is the best thing of all & provided she gets herself strong enough to walk about I will forgive her every thing. You must tell her so with my dear love. I’m going to enclose a note to little Lu [8] which I shall ask you to deliver.
Mrs Sartoris moved today into her old house, [9] which has been undergoing a change—it does not seem quite natural except the table with the veritable cloth on which we used to play with the letters—it made me melancholy to see it & fancy the time when we were all gathered together so jollily—there is a great hole here this winter, I can tell you but Mrs Sartoris is ever the same dear good blessed angel as ever & sends no end of love to you– And Leighton sends his best love & so does Aïde.
I went to dine yesterday with Mr Gibson & had such a cosy time. I gave him your message & in return he sends you his kindest regards. He is modelling his statue of Clemency & has just colored his Cupid [10] which I like much better than the Venus. The color of the flesh is exquisite.
I had a letter from Ginny [11] a few days ago. She reports herself as safe at home & seemed I thought, in very good spirits at the idea of being there once more. She begged me to say all sorts of sweet things for her to you all.
Poor Stanton! [12] I am really sorry for him. I can fancy what his feelings must have been—it is no joke to lose the labor of twelve months & beside the actual time lost there is the disappointment & vexation– I have indeed pondered well that phrase about “the head-a-top & one foot at bottom” [13] & find it as you say wonderfully “full & complete.[”]
In a week or ten days I’m going to send you a photograph to criticize—it won’t be very big only three inches or so because it will be taken from a little sketch I am now making—& I’m going to have it taken expressly to send to you both & I want you to tell me exactly what you think of it as I know you will. I shan’t tell you what it is until the photograph accompanies the description & then I shall tell you what else I am doing– I have filled my letter with so much gossip that I haven’t room. With a kiss to little Penini & two to both of you believe me your ever
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Scripps College.
1. Year provided by Harriet Hosmer’s reference to Sara Page’s desertion of her husband.
2. Cf. Matthew 17:20.
3. Cf. Job 30:31.
4. See the penultimate paragraph in letter 3489.
5. Probably Anne Over (b. ca. 1823), who appears in the 1851 England census as an unmarried servant in the Sartoris household. In the 1861 census she is listed as a governess.
7. A playful reference to Isa Blagden.
8. Louisa Alexander.
9. The Sartorises lived at 11 Via della Mercede.
10. “Cupid Tormenting the Soul” (1855–60) was displayed at the London International Exhibition in 1862 and is now at the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum.
11. Virginia Vaughan; see letter 3411, note 2.
12. This may concern the sculpture, which we have been unable to identify, mentioned in letter 3489.
13. Undoubtedly a reference to William Page’s theory on human proportions; see letter 3489, note 7.
14. Harriet Hosmer intends this drawing to represent a hat, suggesting her nickname “Hatty.”
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