4300. EBB to Sophia Eckley

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 322.

[Rome]

[31 December 1858] [1]

Dearest dear Sophie, here is weather impracticable for me– But you ought to go to the Te Deum which will be fine, they say.

There’s a ticket for Miss Eckley & a ticket for you, & one for Robert. Miss Bracken comes, to ask me to let you know this, & that you must be at the church ten minutes before two in order to escape any crowd, .. then you wait an hour, & the music lasts half an hour, which will not be too fatiguing. You must, at ten minutes to two, present yourselves, not at the great door of the Gesu, mind, but at the door nearest to the Austrian Embassy .. where Annette Bracken will be waiting for you to take you to your seats. The pope is to be present & the Te Deum (for the blessings of the past year) is said to be a very grand thing. [2]

Now, dearest Sophie, if you dont go, from any possible reason, will you say so at once—because otherwise it will be right to throw up the tickets in time, you understand–

I write this in utmost haste, with four people talking, .. & wanting to talk to me–

If I spell as badly as Peni under such outrageous circumstances, there are excuses for me.

Your ever loving

Ba–

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Berg Collection.

1. Dating based on EBB’s reference to the Te Deum service (see note 2 below).

2. “Rome, Jan. 1. Yesterday afternoon his Holiness brought the old year to its official conclusion by attending the solemn Te Deum annually sung at the Jesuits’ Church, in presence of a vast concourse of people, of whom foreigners, and especially British visitors, formed no indifferent portion.” (The Morning Post, 7 January 1859, p. 5).

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