5263. RB to Eliza Ann Forster

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 280–281.

[London]

Friday Afternoon. [31 July 1863] [1]

My dear Mrs Forster,

Here are the last two numbers of the little thing. I want to say,—and sending them gives an opportunity,—how sorry I am that we should have had so poor a parting. Your Husband generally writes even from the country, so that I may lose no time in going to him. I ought to have called in the interval, and it is useless now mentioning how many Sunday afternoons I intended to do so—and always met with some hindrance. Mere morning-calls, with their uncertainty and unsatisfactoriness, we are long past the practice of, I trust: and this is only a natural expression of my own regret—not made with any notion that such kindness as yours requires it by way of excuse.

I am heartily glad to get away and have the prospect of quiet for the next two months: I told you we go to Ste Marie, près Pornic, as before: add “Loire Inferieure,” and superimpose “Mr. Browning, Chez M. le Maire,”—on the outside of an envelope which shall contain a word of your news, at any time, and I shall—and not I only—be made happy indeed.

And so, good bye & bless us all till we meet again, if it may be. My best love to both of you.

Yours ever affectionately

Robert Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library.

1. Date based on RB’s reference to his imminent departure for France. He and Pen left London on 2 August 1863, a Sunday.

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