619. EBB to Lady Margaret Cocks
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 20–21.
74 Gloucester Place.
Tuesday. [?13] [March 1838] [1]
I must intrude a short letter upon you my dear Lady Margaret, just to ask how Lord & Lady Eastnor are, and indeed how your own self is, for I well know the affectionateness of your feelings & that the affliction lately sustained by your family cannot have passed you by without a pang– [2] Will you, when it is not disagreeable to you to do so, write me one line of reply to this enquiry. I had not heard of any illness—but I trust that the blow did not fall very suddenly, and that the dear little girl went to God without a great deal of suffering, to forget the short trouble of time in His blessed eternity. The youngest of us all is old enough to go to Him,—and the case being so, it is only the foolishness of grief (perhaps all grief is foolish except grief for sin) to lament immature years, & unfulfilled earthly expectations.
You will be kind enough to wish me to say how I am. A blister submitted to a few days since, seems to have relieved the chest a little,—& the warm weather being so near, Dr Chambers & I both hope that I may be much the better for that– I am however in a very weak state of health, & incapable of any occupation which should not rather be called an imitation of idleness, & have not been out of the house since September. We have also been very unhappy; having lost our beloved relative in the West Indies—poor Papa’s only brother,—who was once to me Uncle brother friend & nurse when I lay in the long weary sickness at Gloucester. I never can forget that—& the gratitude & the love were as one. Every comfort that the so bereaved can have, we have had. He died in Christ—in the alone hope of safety by Him—and selfish is the sadness which can live thro’ such assurance. My brother Sam is coming to England for a few months,—which will be a great happiness to us, & an advantage to him both as to spirits & health. How the waves of pleasure & mournfulness chase each other over the sand of life! But it will dry at last. I have just selected as a motto for one of my poems (my volume is in the press & is promised to emerge from it in a month) a line from an old poet whose antiquity has buried his name––“All goeth, but Goddis’ will.” [3] Yes! and all should go but That!–
We hope to remove into our new house early in April—but frosts & floods have so delayed the arrival of the furniture that the time of removal is still doubtful. Do, my dearest Lady Margaret, forgive this scribble, which blushes black to appear before you. Finden’s sale has been beyond expectation—I mean the Tableaux– I had such an affectionate letter from my dear friend Miss Mitford this morning. I do believe she dearly loves me, and I am sure I gratefully love her—altho we have seen each other only four times. There never was a heart more tender in its affections than Her’s—or more skilfull to draw out love.
May God bless you, dear Lady Margaret! Shall I hear from you? Do let me. I send this note to Reigate, from want of knowing where else to send it.
Your sincerely affectionate
E B Barrett.
Address, on integral page: The Lady Margaret Cocks.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: James Hervey-Bathurst.
1. Dated by the death of Lord and Lady Eastnor’s daughter.
2. Isabella Jemima Cocks, third daughter and fourth child of the Eastnors, had died on 8 March, aged 10.
3. EBB used this motto for “An Island,” included in The Seraphim, and Other Poems (p. 185).
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