485. EBB to Ann Lowry Boyd & Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 93–95.
Sidmouth.
Wednesday. [4 June 1834] [1]
You are very kind not to be in a passion with me, my dear Mr Boyd. When I saw the outside of your letter, I armed myself “my lord, from head to foot”, [2] & was prepared for an attack of scolding. But the inside of it, was very forbearing and kind: and so I must thank you, dear friend, for the kindness & forbearance.
As to the Rhemish Testament, I do not object to what you say of it: [3] and altho’ there might be some polishing & modifying of certain expressions, with advantage to what you have written, as composition, yet my remarks on this part of your preface, are not inclined to be seriously objecting ones. Mr Harvey told me, just as he told you, that the character of other parts of the preface is likely to make the book sell. Notwithstanding this, & if I were sure of the certainty of this, I should still feel anxious for that character to be modified. I feel more solicitous that a book of yours should be estimated than sold. And it appears to me that the best kind of popularity is not the popularity attainable by any pamphleteer who has nerve enough or rashness enough to be abusive & violent. That is not the popularity, of which your work should be ambitious.– At the same time, all I meant to ask of you, was, to permit some intelligent & unprejudiced person to read your preface. I do not presume so much even in thought or wishes, as to ask you to concede to my opinion.
After I received your letter yesterday, I saw Mr Harvey. We will try to be more careful in future. I have had two sheets of the poetical translations, & am to have another, I believe, today. There is time, to insert your correction.
Thank you for the long letter, as well as for the short one. Query— Do the “torrents of abuse”, rushing against certain “walls of adamant”, include the terms “vermin” “slime” “hogs” and “grunting”? Because, if so, they are abusive torrents, indeed!!!– That there may be “political motive mixed with other motives,” in the attempt of the Dissenting bodies, I could not deny. They are composed of human beings. At the same time, whatever may be said of the prudence of their late measure, [4] nothing can or ought to be uttered against their honesty in adopting it. I admire their downrightedness: and I do maintain, that if they expressed publicly, if they considered it necessary to express, any interest in the reform of the Church of England in any way, it was necessary, & only consistant with their own scriptural principles, to enter a protest against that union of her’s with the state, i.e. the world, which while it lasts, renders impotent & impossible every effort at reformation.
As to your scheme for the universities, it is to me a phantom,—unless the “young men” are “unanimously” neither gentlemen nor Christians. [5] And if they are neither .... why then, behold the golden fruit of the present system!——
There has been a petition “got up” here in favour of you & your adamantine walls. What a pleasure you have lost in losing your opportunity of signing it. Mr Bradney refused to do so!! [6] I went to church to hear him preach (now dont be severe—give me the full credit of it– I went, before the refusal!) and he preaches the full & powerful gospel,—not of course, with Mr Hunter’s eloquence; but I was very much pleased . He preaches in the afternoon at half past two, when there is no service at the chapel,—and so, I mean to go often to hear him. Were you not wrong about me? Am I such a monster, such a Hydra of prejudice as you took me for? I am sure you must think that I have lost ninety nine of my heads!——
I am very glad that you have met with walking companions,—& that Miss Franklyn has called upon you. I do hope that she may very often go to see you.
Papa went to London yesterday morning. Mr Wallis, I believe, went yesterday to Oxford to see his son [7] who has heard nothing yet of the destination of the prizes. But I am writing more than you will like to read.
Yours affectionately
E B Barrett.
In answer to your enquiry, dear Mrs Boyd, I dare say the name is Brandon, not Brandling. What I heard, was, that it was some name like Brandling. There can be no doubt that the young lady you heard of in days of yore, is the bride now. They do not seem to walk about much, & live in a secluded manner. Mr Singleton has been & is very very ill. He lies in a state altogether hopeless, at Sidbury, where he was conveyed for change of air.
Our house has been taken on for another six months,—& it is in the process of being painted in the viranda part of it—which we do not much enjoy.
I am sorry that you continue so unwell. Our love to you & to Annie.
EBB–
I heard the other day that Mr Bagge was going to be married immediately.
Address, on integral page: H S Boyd Esqr / 27. Brock Street / Bath.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Carl H. Pforzheimer Library.
1. The day and year are provided by a partial postmark; June was the only month on which the 4th fell on a Wednesday. Additionally, this letter is obviously responding to Boyd’s reply to letter 484.
2. Hamlet, I, 2, 228.
3. The Rhemish Testament was an English translation of the New Testament, published by the English College of Rheims in 1582, and revised in 1818. Although the title page of the revised edition bore the words “Diligently compared with the original Greek,” Boyd held that it evinced “an ignorance of the Greek language, as entirely damns the pretensions of its authour to the character of a scholar.” He cited numerous examples of what he held to be erroneous translations (some of them wilfully so) in pp. ix ff. of his preface to The Fathers Not Papists.
4. Dissenters (Non-Conformists) were subject to religious and civil disabilities connected with marriage, burial, attendance at university, etc. One of the remedies being proposed was the separation of Church and State.
5. Degrees at Oxford and Cambridge could only be taken by sworn members of the Established Church; Dissenters were thus denied degrees.
6. Joseph Bradney (1796–1868) was Curate of All Saints’, Sidmouth, a post he held until 1847.
7. John Wallis of Sidmouth and his son Arthur Wellington Wallis, who had matriculated the previous October. The son had published Select Passages from the Georgics of Virgil and the Pharsalia of Lucan (1833).
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