4504. RB to Alexander Munro
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 334–335.
Siena,
Oct. 9. ’59.
My dear Munro,
I know you will forgive me what you must have been thinking the most strange delay in answering your letter of last July, when I tell you my wife was so ill at the time I received it that I could attend to nothing else. As soon as we could remove her, we came here—and spite of a delightful summer and the quiet, pleasant country influences, she never left the house till some three weeks ago. She is now much better, much stronger, & I am in hopes that by spending the winter in Rome she may recover all she has lost. We regret being obliged to continue wandering in this manner, but there is no help for it. As I shall be away from Florence, therefore, and as—who knows where I may find myself next spring?—the wiser way will be to run no risks with so precious a thing as your Bust: I suppose it will not inconvenience you much to keep, what everybody declares a very beautiful & happy likeness, in your studio. I should really be nervous about some accident to it by land or sea. You must, however, understand the impatience both of my wife & myself to see for ourselves, and see constantly, what we shall value beyond most things we possess. Depend on it, we have a much better reason for going to England than last year.
How can we thank you properly for those charming photographs which have gratified not us, only, but many friends and competent critics? (We shall lose, by the delay in sending the Bust, the casts you promise [1] —don’t let me reconsider what must be a right decision!) Your notices, too, of Rossetti & other friends were very acceptable. Pen, your little subject, is quite well and quite happy in a Sardinian poney we have just given him: he has been galloping on it over hill & dale [2] with his curls in full meteoric stream. We return to Florence to-morrow, stay there, probably, a month, and then betake ourselves to Rome, as I say.
My wife’s truest thanks & regard go with mine—she bids me assure you. Pray believe me,
My dear Munro,
Yours very faithfully
& obligedly,
Robert Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: In private collection.
1. Perhaps plaster casts of the bust.
2. Cf. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, II, 1, 2.
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