593. EBB to Lady Margaret Cocks
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 290–292.
74 Gloucester Place
Thursday. [?19] [October 1837] [1]
I thank you very gratefully my dear Lady Margaret for the kind carefulness for our welfare expressed in your last letter. To it I should more immediately have replied—but I scarcely knew how. I scarcely knew whether we were infected or not,—dear Sette having been complaining day after day of headache, & suffering actually from fever—& we, under the circumstances, being of course in some fear as to the probable cause. But thank God, he was much better yesterday, & today is perfectly well: and as we are all tolerably well, & the servant has been about his usual business for more than ten days, I believe we may thank God for having preserved us altogether!——
I congratulate you dear Lady Margaret on the enjoyment you anticipated when you wrote to me, in the society of those so dear to you. You do rightly observe that “our Heavenly Father intermixes our comforts and our cares with a kind and careful hand”. Yes! and if, where all means love, anything means most love, perhaps it is the care, the sorrow, which weighs most heavily upon our hearts! Should not our prayer be, oftener than it is––“We bless Thee for our joys– Give us grace to bless Thee for our griefs!!—”—— And when joy comes soon after grief, does it not seem to come on purpose to explain its meaning? that we might know the perfect tenderness of our Father’s heart towards us—how He did not grieve us willingly?– May your joys go to you dearest Lady Margaret with such sweet meanings—not as causers of forgetfulness, but soothers of memories! So, they will be the more joyful.
May I offer my remembrances to Lady Eastnor—& to your nieces? “Hatty Tatty” is the only name I remember for the youngest [2] —but that, I have not forgotten.
Papa is not yet in possession of the Wimpole St house. That terrible law is always in our way in some manner—and now as it cant do anything worse to us, it is as long as possible in making a title & drawing abstracts & arranging formalities—and poor Papa is in a great fear lest he shd not get thro’ all the painting & papering & plastering & roofing—for the house is in bad repair—before Christmas. In the meanwhile, I am taking breath & courage, prior to settling in London for five and twenty years and a quarter!——!
Is it presuming upon Lord Somers’s kindness,—for which do thank him,—to beg for one more frank? I am almost afraid!–
I had a letter from Miss Mitford the other day with a good many court-details,—a friend of hers whom she calls Marianne Skewett & whom I must call Marianne Skewett too, inasmuch as I dont know whether she is married or single, being Superintendent of the Dressers, & a correspondent of hers. [3] The Queen of the Belgians [4] is very much admired—and the Baroness Lehzen! [5] and our young Queen is spoken of as “a girl of Great power—serious & sedate far above her years, & fully equal to the high duties expected of her”. The ‘seriousness & sedateness’ were not parts of my imagination of her Majesty!! Did Miss Cocks know Mrs or Miss Skewett? Miss Mitford mentions her as “certainly the most universally read woman she ever knew—a perfect Encyclopædia!”.
I have not read Miss Landon’s book yet, Ethel Churchill, [6] or even Bulwer’s, [7] and I am anxious to read them both. Indeed all my news today either of myself or others must consist of negatives– I have not read—& I have not visited—& I have not seen—& I have not walked! the only affirmation positive being that I have had a bad cold & cough which made London look awfully dismal thro’ the windows. I trust that Lord Somers’ indisposition is quite gone by this time! The weather has been trying. How is yourself?
May you have great enjoyment dear Lady Margaret, with your brother! I believe you always have!– Your ladyship is very silent on the subject of coming to London—and yet I must hope that there is a hope of it, in the spring.
Your affectionate & obliged
E B Barrett.
Address, on integral page: The Lady Margaret Cocks.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: James Hervey-Bathurst.
1. Dated by reference to the servant, William Treherne. In letter 590, he was stated to be suffering from smallpox. He is now said to have been “about his usual business for more than ten days.”
2. Harriet Catherine Cocks, 3rd child and 2nd daughter of Lady Eastnor.
3. EBB has fallen victim to Miss Mitford’s handwriting. Although EBB writes “Skewett,” Miss Mitford’s friend and correspondent, Queen Victoria’s Principal Dresser, was Marianne Skerrett. As she was stated to be 94 at the time of Victoria’s Golden Jubilee (Queen Victoria: Born to Succeed, by Elizabeth Longford, [1965], p. 501), she must have been in her early 40’s at this time. Miss Skerrett and her sister Henrietta were very friendly with the Macreadys.
4. Louise-Marie d’Orléans (1812–50), daughter of Louis Philippe, King of France, had married King Leopold of the Belgians in 1832.
5. Louise, Baroness Lehzen, had originally been engaged as governess to Victoria’s half-sister, Princess Feodore of Leiningen, but became responsible for Victoria when the latter was five. She remained in Victoria’s service until 1842.
6. Ethel Churchill; or the Two Brides (1837).
7. Ernest Maltravers, published in September 1837.
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