4618. EBB to Harriet Beecher Stowe

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 214.

[Rome]

Saturday– [?10 March 1860] [1]

My dear Mrs Stowe,

I have no “typhus” .. nor a caprice—but if it would be precisely the same thing to you to come to us on monday instead of tomorrow, I believe it will be better–

With regards to you both [2] from both of us,

Most truly yours

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. In letter 4616, dated [6 March 1860], EBB writes that she had seen Mrs. Stowe “only once,” presumably when the latter called in mid-February (see letter 4607). The first Saturday after 6 March was the 10th.

2. We have been unable to identify the person who was to accompany Mrs. Stowe. One possibility is Susan Taylor Howard (née Raymond, 1812–1906), wife of John Tasker Howard (1808–88). The Howards, members of Henry Ward Beecher’s Congregational church in Brooklyn, joined Mrs. Stowe in Florence (see Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, ed. Charles Edward Stowe, 1889, p. 348). As indicated by Annie Fields in a diary entry of 10 February 1860, the Howards and Fieldses sailed for Rome from Leghorn that day (ms at MHS). Mrs. Stowe and her party followed soon afterwards; they were in Rome before 16 February (see the first paragraph in letter 4607).

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