4420. RB to William Page
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 173–174.
Florence
June 3. [1859] [1]
My dear Page, I write just a word in utmost haste being anxious that you should get the letters. [2] I will consider whether I can think of other quarters to which an introduction would be worth your acceptance, but meantime send off these. We are just arrived here. I trust you & yours bore the journey well & are prospering. My wife’s kindest regard goes with mine to you & Mrs Page. God bless you.
RB.
Address: Angleterre. / (Mrs Page, care of) / Mr Henry Stevens, [3] / Morley’s Hôtel, / Trafalgar Square, / London.
Publication: None traced.
Source: Microfilm at Smithsonian Institution.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. RB refers to letters of introduction to John Ruskin (letter 4418) and Edward Chapman (letter 4419). Evidently, RB sent one to Dante Gabriel Rossetti as well (see letter 4492).
3. Henry Stevens (1819–86), American book collector and bibliographer living in London, was an elder brother of Page’s third and present wife, Sophia Candace (née Stevens). For a brief period he lent the artist money and helped manage his affairs (see Garnett McCoy, “William Page and Henry Stevens: an incident of reluctant art patronage,” Archives of American Art Journal, 30, 1990, 13–18). Stevens “was engaged by Sir Anthony Panizzi, librarian of the British Museum, to collect historical books, documents, journals, &c., concerning North and South America; and he was purchasing agent for the Smithsonian Institution and for the library of Congress” (EB).
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