4013. EBB to Isa Blagden

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 88–89.

[Florence]

[4 July 1857] [1]

Penini came home in the highest spirits, dearest kindest Isa, & said he had had a very happy day. How good you are!

Here is the Athenæum! but dont mind about returning it tonight. You can quite as well bring it tomorrow– I am in the midst of lessons– Mrs Jameson has gone with the Herberts to Leghorn– [2] Think of Mrs Kinney arriving in the midst of Aizee [3] last night! Robert ran down to prevent her coming up– I dare say she is angry–

Your ever loving Ba

Publication: B-IB, p. 122 (as [12 July 1857]).

Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.

1. Dated by EBB’s reference to Anna Jameson’s trip to Leghorn with the Herberts (see note 2 below).

2. In a letter to her sisters, dated 12 July [1857], Mrs. Jameson writes: “The English fleet under Lord Lyons was off Leghorn on the great day (the 4th) when the Arch Duke and Archduchess [i.e., the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Tuscany], the authorities & Lord Normandy [sic, for Normanby] & suite were invited. The Herbert girls were also invited to go on board the Admiral[’]s ship & their mother being absent, they begged of me to supply her place as chaperon” (Anna Jameson: Letters and Friendships, ed. Mrs. Steuart Erskine, 1915, p. 308). The “Herbert girls” were Elizabeth (“Bessie”), (afterwards Berti, 1813–62), Mary (b. 1814), and Fanny (1817–89). They were the daughters of Sir Charles Lyon Herbert (1784–1855), an English physician who practiced in Florence, and his wife, Anne (née Jeffreys, 1785–1860).

3. Adelaide Eliza Scott Ironside, Australian artist known by her initials “AESI” (see letter 3755, note 13).

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