4784. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 230–231.
Rome–
Saturday– [24 November 1860] [1]
Ever dearest Isa I must let you have a word from my hand to show that I am alive still & therefore love you–
Though being dead in the flesh would not disprove the love–
See how stupid I am.
Dear, there are no letters here– [2] None found, & none arrived by this day’s post .. saturday’s– What a journey! It seems to me that the blood of my heart might be found in stains on the stones of the road. And the getting to Rome! Kind Mr Story at the gate waiting for us– When he said to Robert “No letters,” scarcely I believed it–
And none today.
Robert says its a good sign, the best sign—& that they dont want to give me dangerous hopes by confirming the postcript– [3]
I, I dont know what to think– I feel it, as a respite—that is certain only–
But what if there’s a mistake in the post– I have yours my Isa, so like you! I had yours too, to read on the journey– It was all I could read– The books go back as they came– [4] I could’nt fasten my thoughts to them–
A trying journey in all ways. A good deal of cold—only a still air—no wind– And the carriage was kept very warm with the scaldino– [5]
A most miserable, miserable journey– Though Robert was so very good to me–
We are still at the hôtel de L’Angleterre because none of the apartments on Mr Story’s list will suit us, Robert says– Prices high—too high .. where anything is comfortable. Weather like spring for warmth– We are to sleep here again tonight– Hatty is at Rome [6] —but I have begged Robert to keep everybody away from me just now—& I have seen no face except Mr Story’s at the gate through the carriage window– There has been a vote taken at Rome—unanimous– [7] Write to me my ever dear dearest Isa– If Robert were not out he wd send his dear love
with your Ba’s–
Publication: B-IB, pp. 374–375.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. The Brownings arrived in Rome on 23 November 1860, a Friday. EBB indicates that this letter was written the following day.
2. Regarding her sister Henrietta.
3. In letter 4779, to her brother George, EBB wrote: “There is a ray in your post[s]cript—which will do to try to travel in.”
4. i.e., in Pietro Gai’s coach, which conveyed the Brownings to Rome.
5. “Foot-warmer.”
6. Hatty Hosmer had lately returned to Rome from Watertown, Massachusetts, where she had been staying with her ailing father for the past six months.
7. We have been unable to trace an official record of a “vote” in Rome at this time. However, in referring to the voting for annexation that took place in The Marches, Umbria, and the Kingdom of Naples (see letter 4764, note 1), Ferdinand Gregorovius wrote: “Even in Roman territory people go to the notaries to vote” (The Roman Journals of Ferdinand Gregorovius: 1852–1874, ed. Friedrich Althaus, trans. Mrs. Gustavus W. Hamilton, 1907, p. 110). In a dispatch dated 11 November 1860, Odo Russell reported on the annexation voting and added, “the inhabitants of the province of Viterbo also found means to vote, notwithstanding the presence of the French garrison” (The Roman Question, ed. Noel Blakiston, 1962, p. 137). The province of Viterbo is contiguous with the province of Rome in Lazio, a Papal State until 1870.
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