609. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 7–8.
[London]
[mid-January 1838] [1]
My dear friend,
I shall be glad to see Mrs Smith [2] whenever she is kind enough to come—should I be up, & as well as usual. For the last fortnight I have not left my bed until the afternoon, in consequence of the severe weather,—but this being, to my great joy, at an end, I mean tomorrow morning to get up as early as you know I always used to do, to your great admiration! Therefore pray say to Mrs Smith the message I have already written—together with two things more—my thanks for her caring to see me—& my hope that she wont come far out of her way to do so, lest I should happen to be put into prison again by a confluence of cough and frost. But Mr Murphy the prophet of the almanacks [3] who said that Saturday shd contain the pith of the frost, & Sunday the thaw, declareth that we shall have no more until friday or Saturday & Sunday. [4] Have you heard of him? He is considered the seer of seers, & sees all about the weather in the stars.
As to your good counsel dear Mr Boyd, I assure you that I do consider myself better. Dr Chambers told me openly that my indisposition would not go, for medicine. He told me that, in his conviction, my lungs were without desease—but so weak, that they struggle against the cold air—which occasions the cough. It is a sensible deduction that until the warm weather comes, I cannot be well. In the meantime, he gives me soothing medicines—to produce as much as possible of quiet & sleep. If it pleases God I shall be better in time–
If you see Mr Woodforde, do say how obliged I feel by his expression of kind interest, in calling three times here to enquire after me. <***>
Publication: EBB-HSB, pp. 224–225.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by the reference to Murphy’s Almanack.
2. Mary Ann, the daughter of Boyd’s late friend, Dr. Adam Clarke.
3. Patrick Murphy (1782–1847), author of The Weather Almanack (on Scientific Principles …).
4. Murphy’s Almanack forecast the day-by-day weather for 1838. EBB’s comment about “the pith of the frost” relates to his prediction that 20 January would bring the lowest temperature of the winter. By luck, coincidence or divination, that day brought a sunrise temperature of –4°F, whereupon the public clamoured for copies of the Almanack. It quickly ran through 45 editions and sold over 100,000 copies. Murphy also forecast frost for the 27th and 28th, after a few days of fair and changeable weather.
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