3829. EBB to Henrietta Cook
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 19–22.
39. Devonshire Place.
Monday– [4 August 1856] [1]
My ever dearest Henrietta I wont delay half an hour in answering your letter, because I see you are uneasy, & I know how terrible such an anxiety is– It is quite true that our beloved Papa is not well just now, but there is nothing vitally wrong, nor reason for apprehension– He complains much of rheumatism, & they think in Wimpole Street that Dr Elliotson gives him strong medecines which depress him– Arabel told me seriously the other day that I should not think him altered, except that he stoops more, I who have not seen him for ten years! He was extremely unwell the evening of aunt Jane’s visit—but it was simply an attack on the kidneys, which he is liable to at intervals, occasioning great pain of course, but not dangerous nor lasting– The next morning he was better than usual. I am very anxious that he should go to Buxton for his rheumatism, & Dr Elliotson urges it—but it’s difficult to make him go– For Arabel, she is not strong—& when she overworks herself (which she does in spite of arguments & prayers) it tells– The day aunt Jane came & found her in this house, according to engagement, she had been from eleven till four doing the part of a policeman over a refractory cook at the Refuge, who had to be turned out at the point of the javelin! The matron being afraid of her, Arabel remained on guard all those hours of course after her usual thin breakfast– She came back quite exhausted naturally, praying for bread & butter—the swallowing of which (& a little more I forced on her) did not prevent her feeling quite faint, till I had to administer smelling bottles & settle her on the sofa,—so that on aunt Jane’s arrival, she was by no means in her ordinary condition even. But this was accidental, as you may judge. I expect to see her accidentally unwell too, this morning, seeing that she spent the whole of yesterday in the chapel,—three services, besides the adult class,—which must be very fatiguing– I came away after the sacrament, quite ‘done up’ .. considering the sitting up on those hard seats, combined with the suffocating heat, which is worse here, I dare say, than with you– But Arabel held on manfully .. (implying the corruption of man—for all this seems to me quite wrong.) I think her spirits, however, are much better since our arrival .. she says we make her wicked & worldly, because twice we have beguiled her from the thursday evening services– If Mr Stratten had been here it wd not have been so easy to have done so little, even– Generally speaking she does not by any means look ill– You would not think so, if you saw her– And rest, with fresh air, and a new atmosphere of mental associations, which she wants more than anything else, would make another person of her, I am sure. Oh, if we could but take her to Italy this winter!– I aspire .. but sadly, because so hopelessly.
My dearest Henrietta, I do thank you & dear Surtees .. we thank you .. for your kindness in inviting us to Wilton. If we went, we should take farmhouse rooms somewhere near you—but the fact is, that at present, we cant stir on account of this pressing business about the poem– The proofs must be attended to on the spot, or we shall not have time for the publication. As it is, Mr Forster vows we shall not have time– Eleven thousand lines to print! [2] Imagine that. The publisher in America gives us a hundred pounds [3] for the right of printing simultaneously with the English publisher .. but in order to this, we must hasten, & be rigorous as to time. Still, there’s a truth that remains beyond all facts of this kind .. namely, that I must see you before going to Italy .. must. [4]
There is time to consider– Meanwhile remember this. We cant be together, (you, Arabel & I,) except by your coming to London– Dearest Henrietta, it is’nt possible [5] for Arabel to go to you—you must remember that—and it would be very hard on her to lose me & you together. Also, you are not at all reasonable in your objection to paying us a visit, which is what we ask—nothing can be more absurd!– I beseech you & dear Surtees to turn it over in your altered souls & concede the point– As to Mary, I’m as anxious as possible to see the darling little face,—only I thought by making a grasp at Mary, Altham might slip through my fingers– The expence would be the journey, simply, & my Peni would be so happy!– Ah, thank you dearest dear Henrietta, about the Daguer[r]eotype, [6] but I have decided .. it shall be Arabel’s for twenty reasons– In the first place it’s a trial of Daguer[r]eotypes to take them to a hot climate——& next, Arabel has the right beyond me, I feel– So I thank you, dearest, for her [7] .. & also for me, for the precious intention. I am very glad you have such a remembrance of the infancy of your children– Such things are very dear.
When you see aunt Jane again (not after fainting!) you will not think her looking ill. My impression was quite otherwise– She gave a very pleasant account of you & your happiness. May God bless you—you & dear Surtees–
Oh yes! it is hot– This heavy, damp, stifling English heat!– And think of me dining out in such weather! Fancy me, scarcely living through the heavy, damp, stifling English dinners!– We dined with the William Cowpers though, rather pleasantly, on Saturday– [8] They called on us, on our meeting them somewhere, & Robert took an extraordinary fancy to her, though [9] she believes in the spirits!– Lady Palmerston’s son & daughter-in-law—both of them very sympathetical—she, like a swan for grace & refinement, and with such a sweet human smile– Yesterday we were invited to Mrs Princep’s [10] “afternoon hours” (a new fashionable London entertainment), on the lawn of little Holland House—but it being sunday, I was done up sufficiently at the chapel with Arabel in the morning, & could’nt stir from a sofa afterwards. Mrs Princep is the present Lady Somers’s [11] sister, but not beautiful, like Lady Somers—whom I never saw, by the way, but people talk of her as beautiful– One of our best evenings of all, was at the Hallés’ [12] (the great musical artist’s) last thursday in Bryanstone square! He played Beethoven divinely—& there were other artists there—for instance, Mrs Sartoris (Adelaide Kemble) who sang– The music was first rate altogether.
Mary Howitt came to see me the other day for the first time– I liked her, & Robert did’nt. But she believes in the spirits, (& so does all her family– She has a daughter [13] who is a medium—) and not being a queen of women, like the charming Mrs Cowper, there was a reason (independent of good ones) why Robert should’nt like her. I always wonder why it is she continues to like me.
Kisses to the small faces round & love to dear Surtees from
your ever attached Ba–
Dear Surtees, you think of me! Henrietta, I laugh in my sleeves at your proposition about them. [14]
Address: Mrs Surtees Cook / Wilton / Taunton / Somersetshire.
Publication: Huxley, pp. 252–254 (in part, as 3 August 1856).
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Date provided by Taunton postmark of 5 August 1856, a Tuesday.
2. The total number of lines in Aurora Leigh is 10,938.
3. The American edition of Aurora Leigh was published in New York and Boston by C.S. Francis & Co. In letter 3802 RB had asked Francis to consider raising the earlier agreed upon price of £75 to £100. EBB’s remark in the present letter is the first indication that Francis had accepted the larger figure.
4. Underscored three times.
5. Underscored three times.
6. Probably, the daguerreotype (or one similar) of Altham and Mary that is reproduced facing p. 48.
7. Underscored three times.
8. At the house of RB’s old acquaintance Frederick Oldfield Ward (1817–77); see SD1952. He is listed in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-3) at 12 Cork Street, Burlington Gardens. Besides the Cowpers and the Brownings, Ward also invited, according to a plan of the seating arrangement, Owen Jones (1809–74), architect and designer, and his wife, Isabella Lucy (née Wild, d. 1875); and Sir Henry Bulwer (1801–72), former British minister to Tuscany. If Bulwer could not attend, then Richard Owen (1804–92), newly appointed superintendent of the natural history collection at the British Museum, would be asked. The plan of the seating arrangement is reproduced facing p. 48.
9. Underscored three times.
10. Sara Monckton Prinsep (née Pattle, 1816–87). She and her husband, Henry Thoby Prinsep (1792–1878), Indian civil servant, resided at Little Holland House in Kensington, a well-known gathering place for artists, including G.F. Watts, who also lived there, and other Victorian notables.
11. Virginia Somers-Cocks (née Pattle, 1827–1910), wife of Charles Somers Somers-Cocks (1819–83), 3rd Earl Somers, was the youngest of seven Pattle sisters, who were known for their beauty—though one of her older sisters, the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79), was considered somewhat plain.
12. Charles Hallé (see letter 3590, note 1) and his wife, Marie Désirée (1816–66), daughter of Michael Smith, of Stirling, Scotland, and Marie Antoinette Rillieux, of New Orleans. The Brownings had heard Hallé play the previous summer.
13. Anna Mary Howitt; see letter 3817, note 2.
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