80. EBB to Mary Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 70–71.
[Hope End]
[ca. 1819] [1]
My dearest Mama
Tho the sorrow of separation was amply compensated by the delightful hope of a return yet we still felt very unhappy when you went away My sorrow was doubly strenghtened [sic] by dearest Papas kind present in making me feel what two sweet good people we had losst [sic] I will not attempt to deny I felt truely miserable when you departed which not even the remembrance of my elevated rank could eleviate[;] for a few hours I could fancy that I was “unheard alone” and I could consider you “for ever ever ever lost”[.] [2] Mr McSwiney you may imagine added not a little to my anxiety & tho I must confess I did not in the least consider which was most to be prefered “To be or not to be” [3] yet I might be considered by a friend to roin [4] and to be in real despair– And now my dearest Mama I believe I shall pronounce this subject to be banished I hope for very long I dare not [say] for ever[.] Tho you are so very far away from us you dear creatures I can easily penetrate my way into your hearts & can guess that your greatest wish is to hear how we are & how we have been since your departure I believe your hopes will not prove vain– In the first place Boy [5] is as well as can be imagined if a piece of Apple Dumpling had not interfered you must allow very rudely indeed[;] secondly tho storms spirrits a[re] very much affected in being separated so cruelly from Robinson Crusoe yet he is in perfect health[;] thirdly old mischiefiii [6] might be truely thought to be envied by Neptune but the jealous God has at lenght [sic] gratified his rage by bestowing on his victim the curse of such an appetite mortal before never possesed which at the same time has exposed him to the laughter & ridicule of our little hilly world[;] fourthly Addles has partaken his curse t<o> such a degree that it is often necessary to [ration] her food[;] you will conclude the God of the sea did not act without provocation– [fifthly] His imperial Majesty is in perfect health– Sixtly I would have enjoyed with him that blessing if Eolus [7] had not very rudely declared against me and his powers beat me about so cruelly I have not yet recovered [from] it– Mr McSwiney believes Greece to surpass Rome in every respect but in conquests he says that tho she is trodden under foot by the Turks yet even in the countenance of the inhabitan[t]s she bears the marks of her former greatness of soul virtue & grandeur he says she is conquered but still ‘virtue’ is not banished what can be more favorable to my darling project. [8] Sweet Mama I wis<h I> was kissing you– I am with love <to> Papa sweet little John & all
Yours
EB
Kiss Papa a thousand kisses for me Mrs John Clarke & John & dont forget sweet little John [9] pray forgive me for not writting [sic] to you on Tuesday I was wrong enough to forget it sweet Mamas dear child Elizabeth
Write very soon indeed
Friday– Between twelve & one– Dear dear dear Mama how very sweet you are.
Address, on integral page: Mrs Barrett / Kinersly Castle / Near Hereford.
Docket, in unidentified hand: Mrs Barrett / Letters [illegible word] at Ledbury.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Dated by the references to Henry Moulton-Barrett.
2. Pope’s Ode for Musick. On St. Cecilia’s Day (1713).
3. Hamlet, III, 1, 55.
4. “To growl” (obs., OED).
5. Henry, the last-born child.
6. “Old mischief” and the later reference to “His imperial Majesty” are assumed to refer respectively to George and Bro, the only children not otherwise named in EBB’s report.
7. Æolus, the god of the winds.
8. Her poem, The Battle of Marathon.
9. EBB’s aunt, Mary Graham-Clarke (née Parkinson), her husband, and their first-born, John Altham Graham-Clarke.
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