5813. RB to Olivia Amy Douglas Sebright

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 133.

19. Warwick Crescent,

Upper Westbourne Terrace, W.

Oct. 26. ’66.

Dear Lady Sebright, [1]

Thank you, & thank Sir John, extremely for your kindness: I should much enjoy the visit you propose [2] but, this year, I am unable to leave London for a day, now, that I am back after a longish holiday in France: my Son has to stick to his books, and I must stick to him, you see. After next Michaelmas he will be off my hands, I trust. I know, more or less, all the pleasant people you mention,—yet the main misfortune in this case is that I have to forego your company and your husband’s, of course: with true regards to him, pray believe me,

Ever yours sincerely

Robert Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: George Cella.

1. Olivia Amy Douglas Sebright (née FitzPatrick, 1845–95), daughter of John Wilson Fitzpatrick (1807–83), who was created 1st Lord Castletown in 1869, married Sir John Gage Saunders Sebright (1843–90), 9th Baronet, in 1865.

2. Presumably the invitation was to join a party at the Sebright’s country seat, Beechwood Park, near Markyate, Hertfordshire.

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