5439. Walter Savage Landor to RB

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 106–107.

[Florence]

[Postmark: 18 August 1864]

1 I took my lodgings by the year, and the rent was paid regularly, even when it was encreased.

2 Furniture was sufficient, but more was put into the rooms without my consent or knowledge.

3 The window in the end chamber had a marble slab put under it without my consent or knowledge, and when I ordered it to [be] removed, it was not done, but the most violent and insolent language was used against me, after I had ordered the woman to leave the room. I have taken the apartments by year, the woman by her violence would force me to quit them. My weakness is such that my son Charles lifts me into bed—I give no trouble. I eat but an ounce of meat[.]

I am resolved to live and die in this house, probably in a few weeks or days.

Now, my dear kind friend, accept the last letter I may ever be able to write, and believe me your obliged and affectionate

W S Landor

I hope your son Robert is all he promised to be

Address, on integral page: Robert Browning Esq / [continued in Wilson’s hand:] 151. Rue de Grenelle / Faubourg Saint Germain / Paris. Redirected: Parti pres Bayonne / Parti chez Mme Petreau / Cambo pres Bayonne.

Publication: BBIS-5, p. 60.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

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