5940. RB to Charles Kingsley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 228.
19. Warwick Crescent,
Upper Westbourne Terrace W
July 13. ’67.
My dear Mr Kingsley,
Your note calls up the memory of one of my best days,—that spent in your company at Farnham, years ago: [1] we went through such meadows, past such trees, to a ruined Abbey,—and you laid yourself down in a stone coffin there, still embedded in the turf: also you talked most pleasantly of many a thing, poetry included, and climbed a mound, agile as an ibex, to gather bilberries for my wife: you give me laurel-leaves now, in this kind letter of yours, [2] and grateful I am,—but that was the gift that enables me to reciprocate your love,—which I am sure I do with all my heart.
Ever yours
Robert Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Yale University.
1. The Brownings met Kingsley during a visit to the John Paines at Farnham from 21 to 23 August 1852. EBB writes appreciatively of Kingsley in letters of the period (see for example letter 3097). For Kingsley’s less than appreciative view of the Brownings, see SD1598 in vol. 18.
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