3601. EBB to Henrietta Cook
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 229–232.
[London]
Friday [17 August 1855] [1]
My dearest dear Henrietta, I know I am behaving just infamously to you. The truth is I have been beside myself with one thing & another .. occupied above all in hating & detesting this London which hangs weights on my very soul & sinks me to the bottom of things. Dear, I am beginning to lose hope now about seeing you .. with the rest. It has been a most uncomfortable & unprofitable visit to England—except for Arabel’s face, & that Robert’s book is partly printed. As for our means of getting to Taunton .. there are none, really. If I could go, you would not need ask me. I would give the money twice over, (supposing it mine to give) for the joy of seeing you, dearest, and the two treasures, & your cottage—what pleasure it would be? We have been asked .. (let me count the “wheres” to you—) [2] we have been asked to Wiltshire, to Derbyshire, to Sussex, to Hertfordshire, to Herefordshire, to Yorkshire & the isle of Wight .. (not to Mr Kenyon’s though: only to Alfred Tennyson’s!) [3] and we have had to say ‘no, no, no’ everywhere. I should have liked rather the visit to Knebworth, Sir Edward Lytton’s,—but we said there also, but ‘no’. The obstacles were on all sides.
And you, dearest Henrietta, have been unwell! You do not fancy it was scarlatina, do you? My Penini is looking as pale as possible in this heavy London air, & if you saw him you would not think him worthy of the popular applause at Marseilles or anywhere beside. Tell me of Altham. We were all in admiration before his letter. The little carriage will be as good for him as for you, if that warhorse of dear Surtees’s, will but be mild & meek, & forget to snuff the battle afar off. For my part & most seriously, I do hope you will take great care. I cant help certain apprehensions.
I have been three times in Wimpole Street since we arrived, & that’s all. Yesterday Arabel deceived me into going when papa was in the house, I understanding that he was going out: & under such circumstances of course I was in a continual state of nervous alarm. Think of Penini being absolutely caught the other day. George was playing in the hall with him, & he was in fits of laughter– Papa came out of the dining-room & stood looking for two or three minutes. Then he called George, & went back. “Whose child is that, George?” “Ba’s child,” said George. “And what is he doing here, pray?–” then, without waiting for an answer he changed the subject– To hear of it thrilled me to the roots of my heart—and there’s an end.
Dear Bummy was very kind to me this time of her being in London, & it gave me great pleasure & comfort to have seen her a little—I wish it had been for longer.
She & you both want to hear the results of our seeing Home. So I will tell you .. on the condition though, that, when you write to me you dont say a word on the subject .. because it’s a tabooed subject in this house,—Robert & I taking completely different views, & he being a good deal irritated by any discussion of it. I think it may satisfy you more under these circumstances, to read a letter which Mr Lytton wrote to me– [4] He is impartial & very intelligent,—saw the manifestations at Ealing two days before we did, which he here describes– I have copied it out for your use & Bummy’s– Show it to her—will you? .. only begging her not to name the subject in any letter to this house, for the reason I have given you.
We did not see quite as much as Mr Lytton did—but we were touched by the Invisible, heard the music & raps—saw the table moved, & had sight of the hands. Also, at the request of the medium, the spiritual hands took from the table a garland which lay there, & placed it upon my head. The particular hand which did this was of the largest human size, as white as snow, & very beautiful. It was as near to me as this hand I write with, & I saw it as distinctly– I was perfectly calm .. not troubled in any way, & felt convinced in my own mind that no spirit belonging to me was present on the occasion. The hands which appeared at a distance from me I put up my glass to look at .. proving that it was not a mere mental impression, & that they were subject to the usual laws of vision. These hands seemed to Robert & me to come from under the table, but Mr Lytton saw them rise out of the wood of the table—also he tells me (which is not mentioned in the enclosed paper) that he saw a spiritual (so called) arm, elongate itself as much as two yards across the table & then float away to the windows, where it disappeared. Robert & I did not touch the hands– Mr Lytton & Sir Edward both did. The feel was warm & human—rather warmer in fact than is common with a man’s hand. The music was beautiful.
Mr Home was staying at Ealing when we saw him, at a private house .. the residence of a rich solicitor whose wife is a friend of Mrs Jameson & her sisters. [5] Robert acquits the whole family of collusion, believes in their veracity, but cries out, against Home’s humbuggery. Oh! It is difficult to convince any man (even my Robert) against his will.
I think that what chiefly went against the exhibition in Robert’s mind, was the trance at the conclusion during which the medium talked a great deal of much such twaddle as may be heard in any fifth rate conventicle. But according to my theory (well thought-out & digested) this does not militate at all against the general facts. It’s undeniable & has been from first to last, that if these are spirits, many among them talk prodigious nonsense, or rather most ordinary common-place.
For my own part, I am confirmed in all my opinions. To me it was wonderful & conclusive,—& I believe that the medium present was no more responsible for the things said & done, than I myself was. Mr Home has now gone to Italy. The “hands” meantime are seen by others—and lights are seen– There is a medium, a young woman, [6] who is in the charge of a friend of Sir Edward Lytton’s– The other evening they appealed (Sir Edward & his son) to the “spirits” during a sêance, to show them the “hands.” A promise was given & not kept. Sir Edward began a reproach on the subject, when suddenly a flame burst out of the table. It was an effort made by the spirits, they thought, to manifest themselves more clearly. And since then, this medium is followed by a light, during all the sêances .. followed about the room as she moves–
You may be quite sure that these things are developping themselves, even here in England, more & more, though the secret of them is kept, in order to avoid the derision of the sceptical public. Lord Stanley [7] said to Sir Edward Lytton a few days back, that the government should appoint a committee of investigation so as to get as far as possible at the facts–
Read all this (will you?) to dear Bummy, with my very best love. A very little patience & we shall not need speak such things in a whisper .. for it is but the beginning. Never mind sending me back Lytton’s letter—I only send you the copy.
Write to me darling Henrietta on every other subject you can think of. I think of you, & breathe your way, hoping you may feel my love–
Your ever attached
Ba–
I scarcely know what to say of Alfred’s marriage. I wrote of course—& he has written to me. He seems very happy now, & may God grant that the happiness last! The malady is the horrible objection, [8] from which I cant distract my eyes.
We are wondering whether Papa will go to the coast—if on the route to Paris, we would follow them there & it wd be good for Penini & pleasant on every account.
Address: Mrs Surtees Cook / Wilton / Taunton.
Publication: Huxley, pp. 218–221 (in part).
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Date provided by a Taunton receiving stamp of 18 August 1855, a Saturday.
2. Cf. EBB, Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), XLIII, 1.
3. We have been unable to determine who invited the Brownings to Wiltshire, Derbyshire, or Sussex. Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s seat was Knebworth, in Hertfordshire; the Martins lived at Old Colwall, Herefordshire; and Richard Monckton Milnes’s seat was Fryston Hall, Ferrybridge, Yorkshire. Milnes had asked the Brownings there in 1852 (see letter 3104).
5. Mrs. Jameson had four sisters: Eliza Murphy (d. 1874, aged 78), Louisa Bate (née Murphy, d. 1871, aged 74), Camilla Sherwin (née Murphy, 1797–1886), and Charlotte Alicia Murphy (1805–76).
6. Unidentified.
7. Edward Henry Stanley (1826–93), styled Lord Stanley, later 15th Earl of Derby, was the eldest son of the present Earl, Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1799–1869) and his wife Emma Caroline (née Bootle-Wilbraham). Lord Stanley served as M.P. for King’s Lynn, Norfolk, from 1848 to 1869.
8. i.e., insanity, as EBB explains in letter 3611.
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