4329. Walter Savage Landor to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 48.
[Florence]
[?4] [February 1859] [1]
Two of my friends are going to Rome and will be most happy to be presented to you and Mrs Browning. These friends are Mr Sandford [2] and Admiral Erskine, [3] whose brother, [4] the Rector of Woburn, is of the party.
Ever sincerely
Yours
W S Landor.
Address: Robert Browning Esqr / 43. Bocca di Leone / Roma.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Conjectural date based on Landor’s reference to “Mr. Sandford and Admiral Erskine,” both of whom left Florence for Rome on 5 February 1859 (see R.H. Super, Walter Savage Landor: A Biography, New York, 1954, p. 468).
2. William Graham Sandford (1834–84), diplomat, son of Erskine Douglas Sandford, Sheriff of Galloway, and his wife, Johanna Grace Graham (née Gordon). Sandford was attached to the British Legation at Turin from 1860 to 1863. In the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-4), he is listed at “75 Via di Capo le Case” in Rome.
3. John Elphinstone Erskine (1806–87), Rear Admiral, R.N., formerly aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria, was the second son of David Erskine (1772–1847), Scottish civil servant in the East India Company at Ceylon, and his wife, Keith (née Elphinstone, 1776–1841), fourth daughter of the 11th Lord Elphinstone. At this time Erskine was second in command of the Channel Squadron. He is listed in AB-4 at “22 Via del Babuino” and later at “104. Via in Arcione.”
4. Rev. Hay Macdowall Erskine (1810–96), Perpetual Curate of Woburn (1848–53) and vicar of nearby Woburn Sands (1868–74).
___________________
