469. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 63–64.
[Sidmouth]
[?21] [–22 November 1832] [1]
My dearest friend,
In not hearing from me immediately on the subject you mentioned, you will not, because you cannot, believe that I was waiting for “leisure”. I do not mean to send what I have written until I hear further from Bath. They are incredulous here in my really thinking that you will not come to Sidmouth. But I do think so,—& I have two reasons for the thought: & one of them is, that the pleasure would be far greater than any which I now expect.
I was of course sorry to find that you had actually sent your ms. to the Methodists Magazine, [2] where it will probably be read by very few capable of appreciating it. If I had decided upon not publishing in a separate form, I would at least have consigned it, to a publication of a higher literary character. You did not tell me Mr Clarke’s opinion.
Thursday. I cannot wait any longer. What you said of your inability to take exercise & to give your attention to literature as you used to do, made me feel sure that something in Bath did not agree with you. I am very certain you were able to attend to reading last winter as long if not longer than you did when I knew you first. You told me yourself that you had less heaviness in your head & nervousness than you formerly suffered from; & if last winter you could not walk for 8 miles, the evident reason was, your having thrown yourself out of the habit of walking, by not employing a person to walk with you regularly. If I had any influence with you, I wd beseech you to leave Bath. The air must be the same as at B[ath]H[ampton]; & besides, if it were not, a large town is not a place calculated for, or safe for your residence. I am sure you believe what you say: but you may mistake your feelings. That a person in tolerable health, should be physically fatigued by listening to English reading for ten minutes once a fortnight, (to take an outside calculation) appears to me difficult to understand,—& that a person shd be morally so, by this degree of communication from another, & yet preserve a friendship for that other, appears to me still more difficult. You know it was not so!——
I deeply regret having occasioned annoyance to one to whom I always wished to give only pleasure. But it shall never be repeated. I wish I could save you from every other annoyance as easily, tho’ at the price of as much pain to myself.
Your affectionate friend
EBB.
Burn this half of this sheet. [3]
Address, on integral page: H S Boyd Esqr / Bath Hampton / Bath.
Publication: EBB-HSB, pp. 199–201.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. This letter is postmarked 22 November 1832, which was Thursday, the day of EBB’s second entry.
2. Boyd’s translation of Gregory Nazianzen’s “In Christi Nativitatem” was published in The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine for December 1832, pp. 848–861.
3. The balance of the sheet is a letter from Arabel to Annie. For text, see SD756.
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