3521. EBB to Thomas Westwood
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 79.
Florence,
Feb 20, [1855] [1]
I should have written, my dear Mr Westwood, much more quickly, but your letter found me very unwell indeed, and making a trouble of living and breathing, much less writing, though with a heap of pen-work on my hands of necessity. We have had some severe weather this winter, and I never suffered to such a degree in my chest since being in Italy. Now, the attack has passed. I have vitality enough yet, I think, to keep the Baltic fleet in steam and wind. After being properly knocked down it is my custom to get up again. So in a few weeks I daresay I shall be as strong as ever, and manage to get my bones out of sight in a very decent degree.
My best wishes, my best prayers—take them from my heart, dear friend. Often and often have I wished just this specific good for you … this completing good, this crowning good of a happy marriage [2] .... Do you remember once, years and years ago, you talked of good fortune and I congratulated you directly on “going to be married” … as if good fortune could mean nothing else? That was a woman’s blunder—implying however something which was not a blunder. <***>
Publication: None traced.
Source: Kenyon Typescript, British Library.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to Westwood’s marriage (see note 2).
2. On 14 April 1855 at the British Embassy in Brussels, Westwood married Rosa Emilia (née Deby, 1827–1916), eldest daughter of Marc Julien Deby, ex-burgomaster of Laeken (suburb of Brussels), and his wife Emilia (née Cerf).
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