4144. EBB to Henrietta Cook

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 57–60.

Casa Guidi–

March 4– [1858] [1]

My beloved Henrietta I shall begin a letter to you today even if I dont finish it; [2] but finish it I will if I can– Dear, I have been negligent of you lately, if seeming were being: only it is’nt; and you have understood that my letters to Arabel were intended to sweep you by a side wave: writing to her was writing to you– I have thought of you & loved you– I think of you and love you– I bid God bless you, dear dearest, now & always—and that prayer asks Him to bless yours, of course—yours being the best part of you—dear Surtees, the darling children,—all of you. Dearest Henrietta, I do wish you would write to me soon a minute account of them. It seems to me that in the news I have had from England lately, I have’nt had as much news of the children as I always look for. I want to know about the baby, whether he talks yet, and of Altham how he gets on in French and other things, (what books he reads)—and of Mary, if she ever longs after Arabel. Do you know, Henrietta, I am sometimes unreasonable enough to wish you had let her have that child! Not that I could have done it myself—oh, you have my full sympathy– Only you would have had some applause from me the other way– Poor little pretty Mary!– Storm wrote great praises of them– He evidently thinks that neither Penini nor any other child can approach them in goodness & attractiveness. I am so glad they pleased Storm,—and you must have been a little glad too to observe it– I can fancy his carrying them about on his back, my dearest Storm, always so fond of children & so goodnatured! Now mind you tell me what Altham is doing, reading, learning: I want to know everything. Have you begun to teach Mary music?—or Altham, perhaps?– Mr Twistleton (Lord Say & Seele’s brother .. and a very intelligent man) told me the other day in speaking of education, that a learned university friend of his had a theory of what great things might be done if the childhood of a boy were devoted to the living languages (so easily acquired in childhood) & the seven years necessary to the dead languages were taken from his life after fifteen– This was said without a thought of Peni of course—but Robert & I exclaimed, we having had something of the same idea– Not that we shall wait till he is fifteen to begin Latin with him: only we shall not be in a hurry with Latin, which he will get on faster with, having the advantage of a somewhat more matured intelligence. At present, music swallows up most of his time. Not that I grudge it: the faculty is too obviously there to be cultivated– At the time of his cruel imprisonment for the week of carnival, his master sent him some new “studies” (that he might not lose). And poor Peni with a deep sigh exclaimed, “well, that’s some comfort, at least.” These studies are called on the title page “Studies of medium difficulty”, and are in reality so difficult that Robert at first thought it impossible for him to play them– But he gets on wonderfully with those little bits of hands. Sigr Del Bene has composed & dedicated a piece of music to him [3] which he (Peni) plays, and very pretty it is– You cant think how the child’s face lights up while he plays– Fanny Haworth has made a quite lovely picture of him at the piano, looking like an inspired little Mozart– Well, dont think me too conceited. I humbly wish sometimes that he spelled as well as he plays,—for that is by no means the case– I suppose spelling comes by degrees somehow,—or really I might feel uneasy. He learns & says so much spelling every morning, but still he is backward in it to an extraordinary degree, considering his general forwardness– French he translates as if he read English,—and German as well as he did French when you knew him;—Italian & English going of course on the same line. He wants to learn dancing & I am listening about for some family of children with whom we might combine, & get lessons together without fuss or expense—for he would learn at his age quite enough in a short time, to suit our purposes. See how I tell you not merely of things done but of things intended– You would think Peni improved in many ways– He would’nt teaze Altham as he did,—he is more yielding & gentle to his little friends,—less inclined to be selfish,—more good in all ways– Visits to England dont generally do him good—in fact never do: for through my being carried off my feet, he is thrown into irregularities which are bad for children, to say nothing of the constant temptation of over-indulgent kindness all round– Then “my uncles” used to try to make him “manly”, which was rather fatal sometimes—– I know he teazed Altham too much, & had a disposition to be ‘cock of his walk’ which was intolerable– When they meet again we shall be more agreeable I hope.

Dearest Henrietta, it was with pain that I heard of the departure to Jamaica, as you may suppose, [4] .. and in that horrid creeping David Lyon too, which I have no manner of reason for respecting. They will be weeks & weeks on the sea– What an absurdity to go, it seems to me. If I crossed those seas, I would go to America at once, and sometimes I feel rather inclined. I should like to see some things in America—but still, but still .. no, we shant go, I think– Ægypt would suit us better,—& to Ægypt we shall certainly, if we live, go some day. The drawback is the enormous expense—a guinea a day each person, including a servant & a child .. & we cant go without a maid for Peni & me,—& three or four months on the Nile alone, at twenty eight guineas a week. Of course this is a thing to do in the winter if at all– Then there’s a week’s sea voyage almost.

We have had a most exceptional winter here,—cold & miserable,—only neither vines nor olives have died, because there was no damp with the cold. Now there is rain & sun & warmth– Everybody has had influenza,—& Robert with whom it was complicated with bilious disarrangement, (from which he suffers constitutionally) was so exceedingly unwell, that he was persuaded to try homœopathy– He submitted, with a smile of scorn, to give it a fair trial– By degrees the scorn disappeared—there seemed “really something in it”—undeniably he “felt better”– Now, he has a regular healthy appetite, and the tongue has ceased to look like chalk. If he begins by being an homœopathist he will end by being a spiritualist, I prophecy to him. So positive he used to be on this subject. He takes the globules in water, which is now considered the strongest form– Certainly this medecine takes hold of the constitution. I would not trust to it where a rapid shock to the system is necessary (as in the case of sudden inflammation or fever) but in any chronic affection, I really would. We are going to buy bottles & a book, so as to have our fate in our own hands .. so far!

Everybody has been ill, & with the rest dear Mrs Jameson who intended to have left Florence for Naples a week ago, but was kept & torn by feverish cold & cough– She means however to leave us on saturday.

Tell me dearest Henrietta,—are you invited to Henry’s marriage?—and if you are, do you go?– Mind you send me a description of Emelia [sic], & say if Henry was content with my letter to him– I wish it had fallen out so that you could have been neighbours. I had fancied it might have been. Well—and what of Alfred & Lizzie?—where are they?—and what is Alfred about to do?

Mrs Martin wrote to me from Paris, & said that the Hedleys were not as charmed as usual with their continental winter,—which would’nt be regrettable, said she, if it made them more satisfied with their English residence– (An English residence seems to secure all virtue, I reflected, even with dear Mrs Martin!)

As for me I have not, neither, had a charming continental winter– I am a rag of a woman through weakness (from the cold) but I have not had cough as I had it in England .. oh no .. and dull & sad as I have been, this armchair of mine & the German circulating library, [5] have served me excellently. I am quite as little inclined as ever, tell dear Surtees, (at least as little) to his great ‘park which only required ten thousand a year’ to keep it up. [6] In fact, (between little Mary & me) I am grown horribly unEnglish on the late House of Commons movement, [7] at which I gnash my teeth with rage– I hear nothing now but of Peni’s grand preparations for his birthday festa– There is a great black stove in his room which he is covering with silver & golden paper. Then he sticks it & the wall all over with wax tapers & lights them for an illumination, & invites his friends to a monster tea-drinking. That’s Peni’s idea of a festa! I wish Altham & Mary were here.

Not a word more– I do hope Arabel, that dearest, has visitors– Emma Barrett seems to have pleased her– What are you doing? whom are you seeing?– Did you find Taunton dull after Bryngwyn?

May God bless you ever, prays your tenderly attached

Robert’s love with mine—and Peni’s–

Address: Angleterre viâ France– / Mrs Surtees Cook / Wilton / Taunton.

Publication: Huxley, pp. 288–290 (in part).

Manuscript: British Library.

1. Year provided by postmark.

2. 4 March 1858 being Henrietta’s 49th birthday.

3. The piece was a fantasia, as identified by Sarianna in SD2150. A manuscript of it, entitled “Fantasia,” is preserved in an album that was given to Pen by Anna Jameson on 1 January 1858 (see Reconstruction, A32). Pen performed it successfully at a musical soirée hosted by Giuseppe Del Bene (see letter 4169).

4. The departure of brothers Charles John, Septimus, and Octavius.

5. Brecker’s bookshop; see letter 2787, note 5.

6. Perhaps an allusion to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), in which the central male character, Fitzwilliam Darcy, enjoys an income of £10,000 a year and a “great park” at his country seat in Derbyshire.

7. EBB refers to the defeat of the Conspiracy to Murder Bill (see letter 4130, note 8).

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