4269. RB to Edward Chapman
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 270–271.
Florence,
Nov. 4. ’58.
Dear Chapman,
We arrived a week ago—got over the M. Cenis before the snow fell—& find ourselves safely here: there is a winter just set in, so prematurely that we look for it to break up in a few days and give us the last of the fine weather—by which the best thing we can do will be to set off again for Rome where we pass some months: my wife is so much the better for the stay in France that I shall clinch the advantage if I can. I write now—first, to beg you will be at the trouble of paying Ellen Wilson the sum of Four Pounds on demand, charging the same to my account. It is a little money-matter of our old friend & servant here,—& I can’t do it so conveniently with anybody else. She will present you an order I send her today. You kindly did the same thing last year.
Next—the Photograph: you will have received it, I hope, long ago: & now, about the engraving. You will bear to be told—in the glory of your success with Frederick—that Carlyle don’t digest “the children” at all—“saying with entire truth that the engraver is a mere mechanic & has changed Freddy from a pretty boy of 9 into a dwarf of 15.” [1] I have not seen for myself—but so he says, and preciously frightened I am at it’s coming to be my wife’s turn. For the photograph is good—and there is only wanting justice to it. Now please remember all my admirable qualities, patience, long-suffering, & so on—and particularly oblige me in this following point: let William Rossetti, whose kindness will bear the burden, advise and superintend in the choice of the engraver, & generally in the business: I know that he will bring it about capitally. We have many artistic friends in London generous enough to care about our concerns and help us in such a matter: but I think William Rossetti is our man just now—so I write to him, knowing indeed that he has expressed his willingness to do what we want. My wife will send you the corrected Aurora Leigh [2] before we leave this place, if possible—some part of it, at all events.
I shall write the last thing, about the “Athenæum question.”
Kind regards to Mr Frederick, from my wife,—and to yourself.
Yours very sincerely,
Robert Browning
P.S. Bell & Daldy are going to publish a volume of short poems selected by W. Allingham: this latter, desires our consent to the insertion 6 or 8 by EBB & RB: & we hereby give it. [3]
Publication: William Michael Rossetti, Ruskin: Rossetti: Preraphaelitism; Papers 1854 to 1862 (London, 1899), pp. 211–213 (in part).
Manuscript: University of British Columbia.
1. RB quotes William Allingham; see letter 4259.
2. For the fourth edition.
___________________
