4503. RB to Frederic Leighton
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 332–334.
Kingdom of Piedmont
Siena,
Oct. 9. ’59.
My dear Leighton,
I hope—& think—you know what delight it gave me to hear from you two months ago. I was in great trouble at the time about my wife who was seriously ill. As soon as she could bear removal we brought her to a Villa here: she slowly recovered and is at last well—I believe—but weak still and requiring more attention than usual. We shall be obliged to return to Rome for the winter—not choosing to risk losing what we have regained with some difficulty. Now you know why I did not write at once—and may [have] imagined why having waited so long, I put off telling you for a week or two till I could say certainly what we do with ourselves. If any amount of endeavour could induce you to join us there—Cartwright, Russell, the Vatican & all—and if such a step were not inconsistent with your true interests—you should have it: but I know very well that you love Italy too much not to have had weighty reasons for renouncing her at present—and I want your own good and not my own contentment in the matter. Wherever you are, be sure I shall follow your proceedings with deep & true interest. I heard of your successes—and am now anxious to know how you get on with the great picture, the ex voto: [1] if it does not prove full of beauty and power two of us will be shamed, that’s all! But I don’t fear, mind! Do keep me informed of your progress, from time to time,—a few lines will serve—and then I shall slip some day into your studio, and buffet the piano, without having grown a stranger. Another thing—do take proper care of your health and exercise yourself; give those vile indigestions no chance against you; keep up your spirits, & be as distinguished and happy as God meant you should. Can I do anything for you at Rome—not to say, Florence? We go thither (i.e. to Florence) to-morrow, stay there a month, probably, and then take the Siena-road again.
I know nothing about Macpherson: you left, you remember, both portraits with him: I went for them at the very last—found his engagements had prevented him doing anything, and took my wife’s head away with me: he said he would make the photographs and transmit them, together with my portrait, to you at Hooker’s. [2] I ordered a quantity for myself, by the bye—these never arriving, I supposed you had interposed in some way on your return from Capri. What shall I do? He will be less busy this winter, no doubt.
Cartwright arrived here a fortnight ago—very pleasant it was to see him: he left for Florence, staid a day or two & returned to Mrs Cartwright (who remained at the Inn.) and they all departed prosperously yesterday for Rome. Odo Russell spent two days here on his way thither—we liked him much. Prinsep & Jones—do you know them?—are in the town. [3] The Storys have passed the summer in the Villa opposite,—and no less a lion than dear old Landor is in a House a few steps off. I take care of him—his amiable family having clawed him a little too sharply: so strangely do things come about! I mean his Fiesole “family”—a trifle of wife, sons and daughter—not his English relatives who are generous and good in every way.
Take any opportunity of telling dear Mrs Sartoris (however unnecessarily) that I & my wife remember her with the old feeling– I trust she is well & happy to heart’s content. Pen is quite well and rejoicing just now in a Sardinian poney on which he gallops like Puck on a dragon-fly’s back. My wife’s kind regard & best wishes go with those of
Dear Leighton, Yours affectionately ever,
R Browning.
Hatty came up for a day goodnaturedly to see my wife: she has been in Switzerland with Gibson—they left last week for Rome. Wild is with the Storys—I like him much. I have ascertained that Mr & Mrs Matthews [4] do not return to Florence this season—meno male. [5]
Address: Angleterre. / Frederick Leighton Esq. / St James’ Club, / Bennett St., St James’, / London.
Publication: Orr, pp. 221–222 (in part).
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. “Former vow,” or “according to a vow.”
2. James Clinton Hooker (see letter 4291, note 12).
3. Edward Burne-Jones and Valentine Prinsep made a short tour through northern Italy in the autumn of 1859. Their visit to Villa Alberti to see the Brownings was recalled years later by Prinsep: “While at Siena we called on Mr. and Mrs. Robert Browning, who were spending the summer in a villa they had hired near that city. It was evening when we arrived at the house. We presented a letter of Rossetti’s [letter 4492] to Browning. “Excuse me one minute,” he said, for he was at the door, handing a lady into her carriage. It was Mrs. Story, who with her husband, William Story, had been paying a visit. I afterwards saw much of them in Rome. While we were waiting, and Browning was bidding adieu to his friends, a wild-looking old gentleman with much white hair came up to me and made some polite remark, which of course I answered. He glared at me in an odd way, bowed, and withdrew. I found out afterwards it was Walter Savage Landor, and that he was very deaf. It was the only time I saw this remarkable man. We were afterwards introduced to Mrs. Browning. Browning, I am proud to say, was a good friend of mine till his death” (Val. C. Prinsep, “An Artist’s Life in Italy in 1860,” The Magazine of Art, New Series, 2, 1904, 417).
4. Arthur Matthews (1828–82) and his wife, Augusta (“Gussy”) Neunburg (née Leighton, 1835–1919), youngest daughter of Frederic Septimus Leighton. They were married on 7 May 1859 in Florence, where Matthews’s father was the British consul general. The Brownings may have met her in Paris in the winter of 1855–56 (see Emilie I. Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, 1906, I, 241). The couple travelled frequently, living in Berlin, Florence, and London, supported mainly by her father. They divorced in 1872.
5. “All the better.”
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