4724. Thomas Woolner to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 102–104.
[London]
Aug: 16. 1860.
My dear Mr Browning
I have but short notice and therefore cannot write so fully as I wish, but just send these few lines at the request of Mr Clark [1] who wishes much to make acquaintance with Mrs Browning and you. He is the Tutor of Trin: Coll: Cambridge, and Public Orator of the University there; a firstrate scholar I am told, and I know one of the cleverest and best men living. I think you will feel a pleasure in knowing him and I know that he will in knowing you.
My next object in writing is to thank you most heartily for your note and the photographs; [2] as you may suppose, it was indeed a delight to see your handwriting again. As regards the photographs, from your remarks upon them, I cannot help fancying there has been some mistake, for those were two from a picture of Pen on horseback and no other: now as you especially mention this as distinct from others I cannot help thinking there were others taken from life of you Mrs Browning and the young Poet—for W. Rossetti showed me some beautiful ones which you had sent for him—and I must tell you that the envelope which contained them was not fastened and never had been. I should much like to know how the matter stands when you have a few minutes leisure, for if recovery be possible I should like to achieve. Pray excuse my selfishness, but I like to know things clearly.
I left the Tennysons this evening, they have been staying in town a few days, Alfred going on a tour thro Cornwall, Paris, perhaps, and the Breton Country, to look at the scenes of some of the Arthurian legends; [3] for you must know that he is cogitating that subject still, tho’ he has not at present hit on any subject that particularly suits him. Mrs Tennyson desired her very kindest remembrances to you both, and he said I must give you his love and say all the kind things I could think; but as your imagination is more fertile than mine I will leave you to do the thinking.
Carlyle is gone to the extreme North of Scotland to recruit at Sir John Sinclair’s [4] for awhile. I am sorry to say that he looked anything but well when I saw him a week or two ago; in fact he said that he had not felt so unwell and broken down that he could remember before. Mrs Carlyle had got so far thro’ this abominable year wonderfully well, and was as well as I had seen her look for some years. I suppose you heard that she lost her little dog Nero some while ago; it was a real affliction to her, I assure you, altho it was only a little dog. [5]
Please thank Mrs Browning very kindly for me for sending her Italian Poems to me; [6] I think in conscience I ought to have thanked her before; but the truth is that writing is such a horror to me that conscience has often to cry in vain. I own my fault, but unhappily I find myself year after year in the same lethargic state on these matters with no chance of improvement.
I would try and think of any news there might be to interest you, but the truth is that I am so tired I can hardly tell what I am writing about. I must not finish without first thanking you most kindly for your attention to Edward Wilson, [7] who was mightily pleased with Mrs Browning whose opinion of our friend over the water [8] seems to agree very much with his so far as I can judge–
I shall be rejoiced indeed when our English climate may have charms enough to tempt you over for a visit. I wish for good and all!—for when you do come there will be scarcely a chance of getting a sight of you– You must have heard that G. Rossetti is married– [9] I do not know what he is doing.
You will be grieved poor Patmore’s Angel is in a most dangerous state—dying they fear. [10]
Pray give my kindest respects to Mrs Browning, and my love to the young poet, and I hope [he] has not forsaken the Muse ent[i]rely for his horse–
Ever most truly yours
Thomas Woolner.
Address: M. Robert Browning / Casa Guidi, / Via Maggio, / Florence.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. William George Clark (1821–78), Fellow, Tutor, and Public Orator of Trinity College, Cambridge. He planned and edited with John Glover (vol. 1) and W. Aldis Wright (vols. 2–9) The Works of William Shakespeare (9 vols., Cambridge and London, 1863–66), more commonly known as The Cambridge Shakespeare. Clark is listed in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-4) at “Trin: Coll. Cambridge.”
3. On 18 August 1860, Tennyson, accompanied by Woolner, left London for a tour of Cornwall, including Tintagel (the legendary birthplace of King Arthur) and the Scilly Isles. Later, at Penzance, they were joined by Francis Palgrave, William Holman Hunt, and Val Prinsep.
4. Sic, for Sir George Sinclair, 2nd Baronet (1790–1868), of Ulbster and later Thurso Castle, Caithness, on the far northeast coast of Scotland. He was the eldest son of Sir John Sinclair (1754–1835), 1st Baronet, and succeeded his father as M.P. for Caithness, serving off and on from 1811 to 1841.
5. Nero was acquired by Jane Welsh Carlyle in late 1849. He was described by Thomas Carlyle as “a little Cuban (Maltese? and otherwise mongrel) shock [i.e., a long-haired dog], mostly white—a most affectionate, lively little dog” (Carlyle, 24, 309n).
6. Poems Before Congress.
7. Edward Wilson (1813–78) had called on the Brownings in early March 1860 (see letter 4616).
8. i.e., Napoleon III.
10. Coventry Patmore’s wife, Emily Augusta (see letter 3101, note 2), was afflicted with consumption and died from it on 5 July 1862. “Patmore’s Angel” alludes to his poems entitled The Angel in the House (see letter 3488, note 7). The “Angel” was said to be modelled on Mrs. Patmore.
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