3789. John Chapman to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 22, 226.
London. 8 King William St
Strand
May 28. 1856.
My dear Sir,
I have not been well for some time and hence have been obliged to defer answering letters or yours would have been replied to before.
Having never read any thing by Madame Blaze de Bury I could not undertake to insert the article she proposes to write; [1] if however she determines to write it—at all events I shall be glad to read it with a view to its insertion if forwarded to me.
I had a letter from Miss Martineau yesterday; I regret to say she is slowly but surely getting worse. She still interests herself much in literary matters, but her powers are lessening and she is gradually doing less & less. [2]
Please to present my Compliments to Mrs Browning and believe me
Very truly yours
John Chapman
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library, Gordon N. Ray Bequest.
2. In a letter to Charles Kingsley, dated 27 February 1856, Harriet Martineau wrote: “My present condition you probably know,—dying of heart-disease. We are all surprised that I am still here” (The Collected Letters of Harriet Martineau, 5 vols., 2007, 4, 11). She wrote to Eliza Fox on 24 May [1856]: “I expect no more revivals. My ailments increase & my head fails me,—I mean memory particularly” (4, 14). Nevertheless, Miss Martineau lived for another twenty years.
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