3910. EBB to Henry Fothergill Chorley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 113–114.
39 Devonshire Place.
Wednesday– [22 October 1856] [1]
My dear Mr Chorley
You wont come to see the last of us, & we are going: and here’s a last word, failing the last look!—goodbye.
After our absence of some six weeks in the country, I had promised myself to make an attempt to see your sister [2] again, (will you tell her so with my love?) but immediately, on my return, I was siezed by the throat, by my old enemies fog & east wind, & coughed, day & night, till Robert forbade my stirring out of doors .. so that I have been classed among the ‘spirits in prison’ [3] for the last three weeks, & not breathed the external air. I should so much like to know how she is, that if I could have thought you would not have come, I would have written this note before—but I relied on you, .. on what you said to Robert, .. & have waited, waited day by day .. till the last day comes, & we go tomorrow morning– Dear Mr Chorley .. it is we, I think, who have the “wooden spoon” [4] in relation to you .. for how little you let us see you! It seems hard to go back to Italy with so slight a touch of your hand upon ours– If you write to us in Florence .. & surely you will write to us in Florence .. wont you? .. pray mention your sister particularly. We spend one day only in Paris, & shall, from Marseilles, if the weather serves at all, take the Cornice road to Genoa, which will sweep us into the sun & among the orange-trees at once–
We take with us the comfort of knowing that our dear Mr Kenyon is suffering less, & may, with prudence, continue to suffer less for some time–
And now, may God bless you, my dear friend– My heart has been aching over dear Miss Mitford’s letters, of which I have sent a mere selection to Mr Harness .. all of which (as appears to me) are unfit for publication through their own charming qualities .. the personalities & exaggeration of impulsive sentiment being so wrought into them everywhere– I wish I had been as wise as you!– I should have avoided much pain, too, that way– [5]
Affectionately yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Trinity College, Cambridge.
1. Date provided by EBB’s remark: “We go tomorrow morning”; that is, on Thursday, 23 October 1856.
2. Mary Ann Chorley (1801–63); see letter 3122, note 4.
3. 1 Peter 3:19.
4. “Presented by custom at Cambridge to the last of the Junior Optimes, i.e., the lowest of those taking honours in the Mathematical Tripos. … Also in extended use, referring to the lowest of a list or set in other connexions” (OED).
5. The implication being that Chorley had destroyed Mary Russell Mitford’s letters to him. None has appeared in her published correspondence, and the only such letters known to be extant are in the form of a few transcripts at the British Library and the Berkshire Record Office, Reading.
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