4205. EBB & RB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 154-156.
| [In EBB’s hand] | Hotêl Hyacinthe, [1] St. Honoré, Paris– |
Thursday [8 July 1858] [2]
My dearest dear Isa, we are here, having lost nothing, neither a carpetbag nor a bit of our true love for you. We arrived the evening before last & this letter should have been written yesterday if I had’nt been interrupted– Such a pleasant journey we had, after the curse of the sea!– (“Where there shall be no more sea” [3] beautifies the thought of heaven to me. But Frederick Tennyson’s prophets shall compound for as many railroads as they please.)
In fact we did admirably by land– We were of unbridled extravagance, & slept both at Lyons & Dijon, & travelled by express-trains besides, so that we were almost alone the whole way & able to lie at full length & talk & read,—and ‘Doit et Avoir’ [4] did duty by me, I assure you, to say nothing of Galignanis & French newspapers. I was nearly sorry to arrive, & Robert suggested the facility of “travelling on for ever so.” He (by help of nux) was in a heavenly state of mind,—& never was the French people .. public manners, private customs, general bearing, hostelry, & cooking, more perfectly appreciated than by him & all of us. Judge of the courtesy & liberality. One box had its lid opened—& when Robert disclaimed smuggling, “Je vous crois, Monsieur” [5] dismissed the others– Then the passport was never looked at after a glance at Marseilles. I am thinking of writing to the Times [6] .. or should be if I could keep my temper—if I could begin otherwise than “D— you, Sir!” for instance.
So you see, dear Isa, I am really very well for me, to be so pert. Yes, indeed, I am very well. The journey did not overtire me, & change of air had its usual reviving effect– Also, Robert keeps boasting of his influx of energies, & his appetite is renewed. We have resolved nothing about our sea-plans, but have long lists of places & find it difficult to choose among so many enchanting paradises .. with drawbacks of “dearness,” &c. &c. Meanwhile we are settled comfortably in an hotel close to the Tuileries, in a pretty salon & pleasant bedrooms, for which we dont pay exorbitantly, taken for a week—& we shall probably outstay the week. Robert has the deep comfort of finding his father, on whose birthday we arrived, looking ten years younger [7] —really I may say so—& radiant with joy at seeing him and Peni. Dear Mr Browning & Sarianna will go with us wherever we go—of course.
Paris looks more beautiful than ever, & we were not too dead to see this as we drove through the streets on wednesday evening. The development of architectural splendour everywhere is really a sight worth coming to see, [8] even from Italy. Observe—I always feel the charm– And yet I yearn back to my Florence, the dearer—the farther!
We slept at Dijon, where Robert in a passion of friendship went out twice to stand before Maison Milsand (one of the shows of the town) & muse, & bless the threshold. [9] Little did he dream that Milsand was there at that moment, having been called suddenly from Paris by the dangerous illness of his mother– [10] So we miss our friend,—but we shall not, I think, altogether, .. for he talked of following us to the sea, Sarianna says, and even if he is restrained from doing this, we shall pass some little time in Paris on our return, & so see him.
My love to dear Annette to whom Robert will write that we have seen her brother & Mrs Bracken– [11] The child is charming, I think—with a graceful head, & curls, sheared a little .. but as he went to school it had to be done, .. only there is a waving length still, much fairer than Peni’s. He is taller too by nearly a head– Think of that–
Now, dearest Isa, do write to me, & tell me of your dear self, how you are, how you both like Pratolino, [12] and if you keep up your spirits & are good & wise as God means you to be– I shall leave a hole for Robert to put his finger in—the finger with your ring on it! Which reminds me of mine– [13]
Αει your’s in true love
Ba–
Think of our hotel being next door to Mr. Bryant’s. Robert saw him & his family this morning– [14]
Mrs Jameson is here, but goes on saturday to England.
[Continued by RB]
But he won’t see dearest Isa this evening nor till God knows when, & he’s sorry enough for that!—So much I can say of my own—Ba’s going before takes all virtue out of what I can add. Dearest Isa, you must be well & happy, & write & tell us so—won’t you? I find all my “monde” very well– Mrs J. is pleasant & good—the weather is the worst thing, being Siberian and subversive of all plans for cooler places: I have on my winter clothes complete. I shall be curious to know how Florence gets on, hotter or cooler—but that’s nothing to the all-in-all—How Villa B. is. God bless you, dearest Isa.
Yours affectionately
RB.
Publication: B-IB, pp. 154–157.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library and Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Sic, for Hôtel de Londres (see letter 4203, note 1).
2. Dated by reference to the Brownings’ arrival in Paris, which occurred on 6 July 1858, a Tuesday.
3. Cf. Revelation 21:1.
5. “I believe you, sir.”
6. Under the heading “Passport Grievances,” The Times of 30 June 1858 carried four letters to the editor complaining of excessive costs and inconveniences due to French passport regulations. One letter writer, signing himself “Viator,” declared: “We are really and truly mulcted, fined, and taxed by a foreign power. … Why are we to be robbed as well as annoyed by these foreign agents?” (p. 5).
7. RB, Sr. turned 76 on 6 July 1858.
8. Paris was being transformed into a spacious modern city by Napoleon III and his architect George Eugène Haussmann (see letter 3204, note 5).
9. The “Maison Milsand,” at 38 Rue des Forges, was built by the mayor of Dijon in 1560 and occupied by the Milsand family from 1774. Its elaborate façade is attributed to the sculptor Hugues Sambin (ca. 1520–1601).
10. Claire Hélène Milsand (née Gillotte, 1781–1864).
11. Mary Egerton Bracken (née Smith, 1819–1899), Annette Bracken’s step-mother. Annette’s half-brother, William Stewart Egerton (“Willie”) Bracken (1849–87), was forty days older than Pen. After the death of Annette’s father in 1850, Mrs. Bracken settled for a time in Paris near her sister, Margaret Castle.
12. About seven miles north of Florence in the foothills of the Apennines. The Brownings spent a day there in 1855 (see vol. 21, Appendix V).
___________________
