3597. EBB to Alfred Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 226–227.
13 Dorset street. Baker street
Wednesday. [8 August 1855] [1]
My dearest Alfred,
I little thought when we parted at Marseilles, that you would bring me another sister before we should meet again. May God bless you & her, dear Alfred, & make you happy to the utmost of your hopes & the possibilities of this world, enabling you, when the necessary griefs fall in, to bear them better in the strength of your mutual love, &, when the joys thicken, to feel them still sweeter because of being joyful together. Give my love (and a kiss .. if it so please you) to dear Lizzie, & tell her that she must try to love me a little, as a real sister should– When I hung up my “Portrait,” [2] did I think of it’s being my sister’s?– No, indeed– But the way of the world has funny turns in it–
Will you write to me, dear Alfred, and tell me how you get on, and if the Marseilles villa suits Lizzie, & if Lizzie suits it, and if you two (I dont include the villa) are likely to come to Paris this winter, so that Robert & I may see you. We should be so very glad of that chance. Penini being overwhelmed with the number of uncles & aunts, “leally does’nt want any more,” he said when we told him that he had a new aunt. Still, his admiration for you continues, & Lizzie will find him quite inclined to allow her to sit in the light of that. Indeed there’s room & to spare–
In Wimpole street the affair seems to have gone off much quieter than such things are apt to do– At the same time, I am afraid you are not likely to be better off on that account.
I find my dearest Arabel looking well– She is all the delight of my eyes which I can have in London– Otherwise, I hate being here quite as much as usual, & begin to feel very tired & depressed with the number of visitors who do not come from Wimpole street. I see very little of my brothers; though dear Sette is better than he was. So much I do wish that he & papa would go together to Buxton! [3] It would be excellent for both of them. George has not returned yet from circuit, & he went away only a day or two after our arrival.
Robert’s poems are in the press, & I expect a great success. He unites with me in the warmest brotherly regard & wishes to both of you–
May God bless you, here & hereafter!, prays your constantly affectionate
Ba–
Address: À Monsieur / M. Alfred P. M. Barrett / Hôtel des Empereurs / Marseilles / France.
Publication: Ronald Hudson, “Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Her Brother Alfred,” Browning Institute Studies, 2 (1974), 152–153.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
1. This letter is postmarked 9 August 1855, a Thursday.
2. i.e., EBB’s poem to Lizzie, “A Portrait” (1844).
3. A spa town in Derbyshire, 20 miles S.E. of Manchester, known for the healing properties of its mineral springs. There were once Roman baths on the site, though no ruins remain.
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