3868. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 67–68.
Wilton.
Thursday. [Postmark: 25 September 1856]
My beloved Arabel, here we are, without you!– Never was anything so strictly provoking. But the world holds nothing complete—& if you had come, & we had travelled together, we should have all been blown up or at least broken up on the railroad, to make an “end of perfection.” [1] Dearest dear Arabel, write & tell me that the baths are agreeing with you, & that you are getting on with tolerable sprightliness at Ventnor, so that your Image at least, may sit by me with dear shining eyes.
Meanwhile Henrietta & Surtees have planted us in a very hot-bed of hospitality. First let me tell you, that after all your & George’s good counsels, we were advised both against Salisbury & Yeovil, & were directed by the officials at Southampton (who ought to know!) to go round the world (that is, by Bristol) to Taunton, which we obeyed to the letter. Quite ridiculous, does’nt it seem!– To go round by Bristol to Taunton, from Southampton!! This, complicated with your second-class carriages, (do you expect of my patriotism that I should admire your second-class carriages, you in England?) almost finished me, and I barely survived to fall at half past four into Surtees’s extended arms .. no, we shook hands simply, I believe, in order to the decencies of the situation .. or rather, the station. He put us into a fly, & took us to Wilton, where I found our dearest Henrietta radiant, beaming, .. looking so well,—seeming so happy! How very happy she is, dear thing. And do you know that both Robert & I consider that Surtees has been very generally underrated. He is kind, & honest, & straightforward, & by no means, in our mind, wanting sense—conscientious, religious—really, as the world goes, these are high qualities. The children are very fine children. Altham is handsome, I think—the setting on of his head on his shoulders is fine, and the expression of the face is very good. Mary is a sweet pliable womanly nature of a little dot. Her hair hangs & curls much as Peni’s—if not as thickly—but what I like in the little creature is the tender sentiment of her clinging movements & ways. Peni is enchanted with his cousins—leaning a little, be it whispered, to Mary. Peni has a decided
<…> [2]
Robert’s best love as ever—and Henrietta’s, she says.
Address: Miss Barrett / Milanese Villa / Ventnor. [3]
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 254–255.
Manuscript: Amstrong Browning Library (envelope); Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.
1. Cf. Psalm 119:96.
2. Two or more pages are missing.
3. Envelope in private collection.
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