4954. RB to Robert Bulwer Lytton
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 212–214.
Chez M. Chauvin,
St. Enogat près Dinard,
Ile et Vilaine, France.
Aug: 25. ’61.
My dear Lytton, I did indeed receive your most kind & welcome letter, with the enclosure for Isa—which I have forwarded to London. This second note [1] shall be answered at once—tho’ not easily acknowledged—but there is a great hole in my dry ground just now and too many waters of affection can hardly be poured in, and yours,—I do assure you,—goes to my very roots this time. Certainly your first letter was startling enough in its experiences,—&, without holding you to your engagement to “send me the whole account if I should please”—I will only say that I was fully as interested as amazed—I think,—in short, “I please” very decidedly. But I am sorry anything should have spoiled the one chance I saw for you of extracting good out of what was meant for a holiday and turned so sad thro’ your sympathy with me & mine. I always knew the two convents beyond Vallombrosa were the worthier of a visit, but what was left undone till a happier day fourteen years ago, [2] will never be tried again, now. You shall hear about our own journey—it was by an ill-chosen route, I found—one I had already twice taken and remembered too well, [3] at every roadside turn of mark, every inn & resting place the contrast grew more & more intolerable, and when at last we reached Paris (“at last,” because the conducting Pen’s pony prevented our taking express trains) I found myself so sick and tired in every sense as to judge it impossible to continue the journey to London. I wrote therefore to Arabel Barrett explaining the necessities of the case. No words can say what Isa’s tenderness and patience were during our week’s journey, her own health had long been far from satisfactory, and our travelling did not improve it, but she had one thought & care only, and by help of it the weary business was brought to an end. On the fourth day after our arrival she left for London: [4] I have since heard from her, and conclude (without sufficiently precise assurance) that she is somewhat better, being at all events with friends [5] who have a touch of her own quality and will attend to her in some degree as she deserves. She will probably have written to you ere this—dear & true heart! She, like yourself, never left the Hôtel at Bologna, nor at any other place. Two days after her departure, I came with my father & sister to this sea-side village near St Malo—the place is wild & quiet enough, with really beautiful coast-scenery, bays and sands, and a pleasant thinly-peopled country. We shall remain till the fine weather breaks up—say, a fortnight or three weeks longer, and I shall then go to London at once—having determined, on better consideration, that it will be wiser to loose [sic] no time in beginning the English training with Pen which is necessary: friends are apprised, & on the lookout already for some lodging near Kensington Gardens or Bayswater,—healthy & airy places,—and I suppose I may count on being domiciled there by the beginning of October. Forster has been most kind & zealous in respect to any wants, & his company will be a light in the grey winter days that I must expect. Pen,—your goodness lets me tell you,—is very well, cheerful & busied with riding & bathing, and gives me little anxiety at present.
How I wish I could—not make you any return for your kind feeling to me,—which would be trying just to give you back your own again,—but really give you so much good as an old stone like myself may, when pitched down on the path of a younger traveller like you! I read Tannhaüser in a mist and cannot recollect the details: I meant to bring & really read it here, but it has been left at Paris blunderingly. I have the conviction you will do yourself full justice—in the whole display of your powers, as hitherto in partial displays. I would not go back, alter or even amend what is done,—as I think you were proposing to do,—but achieve the great success that is in you, while the freshness, of the morning lasts. Many suppose it achieved already,—but I know you enough to exact more, & love you enough to desire more.
What a poor scrawl do you receive! its poorness, however, gives additional worth to your caring to get it. My head hardly follows my pen, indeed, but I shall do better in time. Let us all try hard, & leave the rest to God. Few things will gratify me like a letter from you, dear Lytton,—and you promise me “many!” I shall be here, remember, for some three weeks longer—and you must put a star or two into their inanity. God bless you—prays very affectionately &
gratefully yours ever
Robert Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lord Cobbold.
2. When the poets visited Vallombrosa in July 1847.
3. In June 1855 and July 1858. During the later journey, the Brownings stayed at the Hôtel Colet in Lyons and the Hôtel du Parc in Dijon.
4. On 10 August.
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