4796. Sophia Landor to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 248–251.
Tachbrooke Leamington
Decr 15th [1860] [1]
My dear Mr Browning
I will lose no time in writing my thanks for your very kind letter & the Photograph received this morning: how kind it was in you to send it: it does indeed prove that my Uncle was looking wonderfully well, altho’ the sinking of the lower lip alters the face even more than the long beard. I look at it with a strange mixture of pain & pleasure for I still cling with affection to the memory of the Uncle Walter of happier days, when he was received again with all Brotherly affection, past faults buried, & in the enjoyment of society which he cld make so delightful, the fondest hopes were indulged, for a calm old age, where the better parts of his character wld predominate & obliterate the recollection of the errors of his previous life. Alas, it was but a transient reformation. However it was a very merciful one; those who loved him most tenderly & wld have suffered most keenly from his recent conduct, passed away in the enjoyment of the happiest hopes & I continually thank God that they were spared what wld have been so bitter a grief. You ask, “Was he always so, or have the elements of his constitution been grievously shaken.” He is now precisely what he has ever been, in childhood, in youth & in middle age, he is neither softened by time & kindness, or hardened by unkindness & injustice. Of the two last, few, very few persons have experienced so little or inflicted so much. With the exception of one or two instances where he has wilfully & persistently thrown himself into the hands of people like the Yescombes for the sake of gratifying his insatiable craving for those highly seasoned compliments which such persons only will administer, the grievances & injustices about which he makes such loud laments, have all been precisely similar to those inflicted by Mr Forster. [2] When the debt of gratitude becomes inconveniently heavy, it is cast off with one strong effort & with abuse proportioned to the claim of the creditor. As regards his wife & children, truly he reaps what he has sown. But, I must not write of these things: let us still hope they will not occur again. You are so kind as to give hints to prepare me for “imprudences that may appear,” & which I am sorry to say have appeared. I will enclose an advertisement cut from the Times about a week ago, [3] which made us very apprehensive he had found some one base enough to circulate fresh calumnies: but I hope one copy only has been sent to England, I can hear of only one, which seems to have been sent by my Uncle Walter, with his usual discretion, to the most mischievous person in Bath. [4] I am told it is more vile than anything that has appeared before & does not spare even his oldest & best friends in the town: but this is only the repeat of the amiable person to whom my judicious Uncle has so wisely sent this firebrand. I hope it may not be quite so bad as is represented but it has caused a sad sensation & I fear will put a painful termination to the friendly feelings of the few persons who still retained a kindly feeling for him. If you know any thing regarding this pamphlet [5] which wld enable me to soften this impression among his former friends, I shld be really thankful to hear it. Mr Forster has been so kind as to send me your last letter to him, [6] from which I gather the hope that you have already been so good as to do what you cld to stop its circulation. Do you know any thing of another piece of mischief which I fear is going on in America under the auspices of Col. Stopford? [7] I am apprehensive that gentleman is preparing for publication, in that country another & larger edition of all my Uncle’s supposed grievances, not only from the Yescombes, but from myself & all those who have offended him by trying to aid him in his difficulties, together with all his intemperate letters to me & others. I try to draw hope from the thought that no gentleman cld be guilty of giving publicity to such one sided statements injurious to the characters of persons he knows nothing of; but on the other hand there is no guessing what plausible, Imaginary conversations my Uncle may have concocted. Can you suggest any means by which Col. Stopford cld be warned? You say my Uncle writes too many letters, I fear this is the main object of them, & I cannot but feel that the liberality of his Brothers is supplying him with the means of doing evil. Wld it be possible to restrict him more in his pocket money, or to give him to understand that if he spends money on printing & postage his personal comforts must be diminished? It is so very sad that his great mental powers, so wonderfully preserved shld be used only for evil. My Uncle Henry has been so very unwell this autumn & winter, I dare not speak to him of these things, which happily his blindness prevents him from finding out. My Uncle Robert sees & hears of them & is greatly troubled by them: he writes to me about them, & I think it right to communicate all or nearly all I know to him, when once a subject reaches him: but he too, is so much of an invalid that I can scarcely take counsel with him: I can only try to palliate what I cannot conceal: & I very rarely see him. My Uncle Henry’s sight & other infirmities have become so much worse of late, I know not how I can ever quit him again: but it is a real pleasure to be with him & to do what one can to cheer the darkening evening of life.
I am truly ashamed of myself to have written so long a letter & not yet to have said one word of sympathy for yourself & Mrs Browning; in whose anxieties & sorrows, I do assure you, I nevertheless feel a most sincere interest. I grieve to hear of the affliction you have had & of its effect on Mrs Browning’s health, but I trust the release from suspense (that worst of evils) & the change of air, may soon enable her to recover. Most sincerely do I hope that you may be able to pass the winter comfortably in Rome & with benefit to her health. I observed with pleasure that you mentioned having had better accounts of her Sister, at the time you wrote to Mr Forster: I hope she continues to improve. How sorry I am to learn that good, kind Mr Forster was so unwell as to be unable to enjoy his autumn holiday; but he writes with his usual vigour now, & I hope is all right again. My Sister & I had such a charming visit in Montagu Square last summer; one of the beauty spots of life.
Decr 17. I cld not finish my letter on Saturday, & will not lengthen it much now; but I must ask after good Madame Romagnoli, how she will miss you! I wld fain spend more money on her & less on her Master’s postage & printing. Pray do not trouble yourself about the accounts, I beg you & Mrs Browning to accept the most sincere regards of my Uncles & myself, with kindest wishes for a bright & happy New Year to both of you. Believe me to remain ever
Most gratefully yrs
Sophia Landor
I fear the Florentine Printer was not faithful to his promise to you: the pamphlet or something similar was seen by a person we know, some months ago, in Florence. Pray consider my suggestion about withholding the means of paying for these things: the quarterly settling furnishes an opportunity of saying that expenses have been too great & either printing & heavy postage must be entirely given up, or dinners reduced: this is the only argument that will avail.
Address: Robert Browning Esqre / 126. Via Felice / Rome / Italy.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Yale University.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. i.e., imaginary grievances and injustices.
3. The Times of 8 December 1860 carried the following advertisement: “To Printers and others.—Fifty Pounds Reward.—Whereas in August 1858, a verdict was given against Mr. Walter Savage Landor, with £1,000 damages, in an action against him in the Court of Common Pleas, at Westminster, for libelling a lady of Bath. And whereas after the institution of the suit and immediately before the trial, the said Walter Savage Landor departed from Bath and went to Florence, beyond the jurisdiction of the Courts of England, and he has recently re-published the same libels, with others of a like character against a clergyman of Bath—the pamphlet is headed ‘Mr Landor’s Remarks on his Trial for Libel,’ but it bears no printer’s name. Now a reward of £50 will be paid to any one who shall, within six months from this date, give to the undersigned information and evidence of the printing and publishing, in England, of the same pamphlet … such reward to be paid on the conviction of the offender or offenders” (p. 1). Application was to be directed to Messrs. Slack and Simmons, solicitors, of Bath.
4. As identified in letter 4826, Christopher Deake Brickmann (1823–1907), son of William Henry Brickmann (d. 1869) and his wife, Barbara (née Deake). He was promoted to Captain of the Royal Berks Militia on 2 August 1855.
5. Several copies of “Mr. Landor’s Remarks on his Trial for Libel,” previously printed in England under another title, were issued by James Thomas Fields and sent to Landor (see letter 4545, note 1). For RB’s reaction to Fields’s involvement, see letter 4818.
6. This letter has not surfaced.
7. Edward William Stopford (1789–1862), who married in 1818 Laura Thuillier, sister of Landor’s wife, Julia.
___________________
