4301. RB to Reuben Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 323–324.
Rome, 43 Bocca di Leone.
Dec. 31. ’58.
My dear Reuben,
All thanks for your letter of the 20th Nov: & for the assurance in it that you & my Uncle William [1] will let fall no occasion of doing what I wrote about. I think £100 too much under the circumstances—& that half of that sum ought to be accounted as a singular piece of luck by Potter: [2] I should pay it purely to satisfy a passing fancy of mine that my father might like to know that there was no impediment to his return—tho’ I firmly believe he would, in no case, choose to return, and tho’ I have a remarkable objection to diminishing Mr Potter’s costs by one half-penny.
I have to apprise you that I drew on you, three days ago, for £40: to meet this, you have the Jan. div. of 43 or thereabouts, and the sum of £21.4.9, being our balance on the Account of the “David Lyon,” payable to you by Messrs Boddington, St Helen’s place: will you further please to remit £25 to Sarianna: you will then be in a deficit of sundry shillings (unless some railway share shall have come in to help)—which I will owe you till April, if you permit me.
Now of ourselves—we are very well in our old sunny little apartment—seeing a good many friends: my wife’s health is very much improved & I feel glad we have come here—expensive a business as the change turns out. Rome is very full—& very interesting besides—the campagna (The open country bounded by the mountains round Rome) is admirable as ever. Why can you not have your part in these good things? I often think of your old plan of going to Rome for one day only—to see (I believe) St Peter’s & the Coliseum & Pantheon: I was at St Peter’s on Christmas day—so was my wife—we heard the Pope say mass in the presence of a couple of Kings [3] who were not noticeable in the midst of this splendor—it is the finest Church-ceremony extant. I am happy to hear you are well, you & your wife and six children, [4] tho’ not in Rome—there is compensation every-where! Truest new year good wishes to you all from my wife & myself—and best thanks for your kind words about “The Blot in the Scutcheon”—you were always the most indulgent of my critics—& I am
ever gratefully & affectionately yours,
R Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. William Shergold Browning (1797–1874), Reuben’s elder brother.
2. Possibly, George William Killett Potter (1798–1871), Secondary, or Under-Sheriff, of the City of London, part of whose responsibility included the collection of fines and forfeited recognizances. Apparently, a condition of RB, Sr.’s return to London, after his flight to Paris in 1852 to avoid paying £800 in damages to Martha von Müller (see letter 3060, note 2), involved some arrangement with Potter.
4. Reuben Browning (1803–79) and his wife, Margaret (née Lewis, 1820–81), had six children at this time: Josephina Rubina Christiana (1846–95), Robert Reuben (1849–87), Michael (1850–93), Thomas Henry (1851–93), William Henry (1855–89), and Margaret Jane (1858–1943).
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