4158. EBB to Emily Burgwyn
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 86–87.
Casa Guidi–
Monday morning– [5 April 1858] [1]
I have been wondering with wonder & gratitude what good spirit put its kind thoughts for me into the shape & fragrance of these most beautiful flowers– Again & again have they come without a name to them, [2] —& again & again I have wondered– At last I seem to know. Is the name Miss Burgwyn? [3] May I write & thank her, as I have done so often in my heart only?– And at last, will she come & see me any day after four, & add to the delicacy of her kindness, the generosity of letting me take her hand and thank her face to face? [4]
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Publication: Beverly Taylor, “A Date for an Undated Letter and an Unpublished Reminiscence of the Brownings,” Browning Society Notes, 28 (December 2003), 67.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Date provided by an entry in the recipient’s diary (see SD2145). In the dating of this letter, in the notes that follow, and for the Supporting Documents cited therein, the editors have relied on Beverly Taylor’s article, cited as the previous publication. We here record our debt to her scholarship.
2. The recipient notes in her diary that bouquets were also sent to EBB on 25 March, 3 May, 8 May, and 31 May 1858 (see SD2143, 2154, 2155, and 2161).
3. Sarah Emily Burgwyn (1823–1905), second daughter and eighth child of John Fanning Burgwyn (1783–1864), successful planter, of New Bern, North Carolina, and his wife, Sarah Pierrepont (née Hunt, 1789–1823).
4. As recorded in her diary, Miss Burgwyn’s first visit to the Brownings occurred on 31 May 1858 (see SD2161). Many years later, her niece Katharine Mary MacRae recalled the visit and an outing to the Cascine, where Miss Burgwyn gathered flowers for EBB (see SD2162).
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