5372. RB to Sophia Hawthorne
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 47–48.
London, 19 Warwick Crescent:
Upper Westbourne Terrace,
May 5, ’64
Dear Mrs Hawthorne, [1]
Ten months ago you wrote to me, sending a design traced from one by Mr Edward Emerson. [2] I see, now, that I ought to have replied at once: but you wanted two photographs, which I thought, then, it would be as well to wait for,—and so the time goes by! A friend [3] happened to be going to America, and the notion of setting myself right with you came into my mind at the moment. So, thank you both heartily: the design is very beautiful, I think, as befits a son of Emerson’s: I wish his father would publish more poetry—perfect, some of it, to me.
Whenever I get new photographs I will give you a couple: all the old are gone long ago. The boy is a great, strong, good fellow, able to ride, row, swim and spar with anybody of his age—and not wanting in other good gifts.
Give my true regard to Mr Hawthorne: all of you are mixed up now with my Roman days and the memory of them—and I suppose you know what that means.
Very faithfully yours ever
Robert Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Huntington Library.
1. Sophia Amelia Hawthorne (née Peabody, 1809–71); see letter 4188, note 2.
2. Edward Waldo Emerson (1844–1930), youngest child of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) and his second wife, Lidian (née Jackson, 1802–92). He earned a degree from Harvard Medical School in 1874 and practiced medicine for the next eight years before returning to an earlier interest in art. He later edited the works of his father.
3. Unidentified. This letter was enclosed with letter 5371 in letter 5373 (see the postscript in letter 5391).
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