5120. Sophia Landor to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 138–139.
Tachbrooke.
7th Octr /62
Dear Mr Browning
I hope you have guessed at the reason why your two letters have remained thus long unacknowledged; [1] the first seemed to require no immediate answer & as I am sure my letters must always convey unpleasant sensations, I wld not disturb you unnecessarily in your temporary retreat. The second required an answer from my Uncle Henry & the proposed term of your sojourn at Pornic had expired before he cld be induced to pay any attention to it, so I then thought it better to wait a little longer until you are probably returned to London. Now I enclose my Uncle Henry’s reply to his Brother’s letter. I scarcely know what to say about it, I fear it will sound harsh to you & as if the harshness was in some degree reflected on yourself, but pray do not think so, for I can assure you nothing but gratitude & respect are felt towards you. You will remember that the writer is nearly fourscore & three years of age & repeated attacks of pressure on the brain have rendered him a little excitable & very unfit to attend to anything that annoys him. And perhaps, after all, it is as well that I have not been able to soften down the letter more, for I hope it may show my Uncle Walter the utter futility of tormenting either you or his Brothers again with this oft-repeated story. The state of his affairs has been explained to him again & again, he knows as well as I do that he, himself, has spent the greater part of the money that ought to have been saved for his younger children; twice over has he spent that which ought to have been saved for them; now he can get at no more, he becomes full of anxiety on their account & wld fain force their Brother or others to do what he was too selfish to do himself: he might as well ask for £5000 or £50,000 per an, for them as for £500, but I need not say it is useless to try to reason with him. I chiefly regret that you shld be tormented by being made the medium of these unpleasant communications, in addition to so much previous trouble. As to the Picture, were I you, I shld simply put it into the hands of the Auctioneers recommended by my Uncle & if it does not pay its own expenses, give its present owner an intimation that he is so much in your debt & therefore he must expect to receive so much the less from you. To our surprise, my Uncle Walter’s second Son, Walter, has actually remitted £10 to England to pay for the Grave. The best we can hope for is, that when he has given as much trouble as he can & thinks all arrangements are made for the burial in England, he will cease to care about it & buy a burial place some where in Italy. I fear Mr Walker seems likely to become a great nuisance to us, but let us hope that his patience will not equal yours & that he will presently become tired of the demands upon it. We rejoice to hear that you found your Father & Sister so well & that your Son has gained so much benefit from the Sea air: We hope the change has been beneficial to you also. My Sister who is now here begs to join me in kindest regards, believe me.
Most Sincerely Yrs
Sophia Landor
Address: Robert Browning Esqre / 19. Warwick Crescent / Upper Westbourne Terrace / London (W.).
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Yale University.
1. Of these two letters, all that has surfaced is an envelope (letter 5114), which most likely contained the “second” letter mentioned below.
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