3737. Anna Brownell Jameson to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 22, 128–129.
[London]
Friday [Postmark: 22 February 1856]
My dear Browning
I wrote to Ba only a few days ago—& I found yesterday that my letter had been sent without the proper stamp– [1] I am so sorry! I must write to excuse myself—it was the mistake of the servant—& as the paper is before me—& you & dear Ba always in my heart I will add a few words–
—You would be surprised perhaps if you saw here the feeling about the peace conferences—no face brightens at the idea of Peace– [2] I know that in the East there is an impression that it will not be permanent and the feeling in Piedmont is blank disappointment & indignation– I saw Mr Forster—your friend—the other Evening—he was quite melancholy on the subject—& I think England looks small at present—“when two men ride on a horse one must ride behind” [3] —as Forster applied the proverb—and I am afraid England is riding on the pillion behind France. [4]
I have a confidential letter from the chief director of the “New National” gallery in Ireland—wanting to know of good pictures to be purchased in Italy– [5] I know, you know of some at Florence—& I should like very much to have a talk with you about them—but how many things, dear friends, I should like to discuss with you! How do your volumes succeed?—all judges—good judges, are agreed as to the wondrous wisdom & subtlety of thought—and all agree as to the obscurity in the expression of the thought—do, dear Browning, think of this—at the same time the style is in itself so characteristic that I know not what to say–
I have been reading Lewis [sic] life of Goethe—have you seen it?– & I am working very hard—with the hope of flying away from London, away from England as soon as I can—the weather here is most intensely cold cold as Siberia[.] I hope it is warmer at Paris for dear Ba’s sake—remember me to your good father & Sister and think of me as your ever affecte
Anna J–
Address: France / Mr Robert Browning / Rue du Coliseé / No 3 / Paris.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Mrs. Jameson’s previous letter to EBB (letter 3735) carried a one-penny stamp; this letter, a four-penny stamp.
3. Late sixteenth-century English proverb; cf. Much Ado About Nothing, III, 5, 37.
5. The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, was founded in 1854. Two years later it acquired a collection of fifteen Italian paintings from the Roman art dealer Alessandro Aducci. The “chief director” at this time may have been George Francis Mulvany (1809–69), Keeper of the Royal Hibernian Academy and one of the leading advocates for a national gallery. He became the first director of the National Gallery in 1862, two years before it opened to the public.
___________________
