660. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 73–76.
[London]
Friday. [10 August 1838] [1]
Ever dearest Miss Mitford,
With the parcel of reviews which your kindness makes you care to see, I venture to put up a little memorial [2] of the object of it—who although she wd trust without any memorial to the pleasant likelihood of remaining unforgotten by you, yet feels that she cannot hold your memory of her (that being so precious!) by too many knotted threads!——
“And She must be
A sterner than thee,
Who would break a thread of mine”. [3]
I am going away dearest Miss Mitford, possibly in a very few days & certainly as soon as the weather will let me, to Devonshire—to Torquay—there to remain over the winter. The plan involves a sadness of heart to me—for we cannot all go; but it is one which is to be submitted to, Dr Chambers having used very strong language as to its necessity. Indeed he told me plainly that my recovery depended upon its adoption. I am therefore going—with the cold hope of seeing Papa sometimes. My aunt & uncle Hedley who have resided at Torquay for the last two or three years under Dr Chambers’s jurisdiction, on account of my uncle’s being affected in some similar way to myself—are kind enough to receive me very gladly & to wish to keep me with them; but after a while & in the case of the climate agreeing tolerably with me, I shall remove to another house & to the companionship of another aunt, Miss Clarke, a dear favorite relative, who has promised to leave Gloucestershire for Devonshire just for that purpose. Here you see, is plenty of kindness. I ought not to talk of “cold” hopes in the midst of it. But I cannot help the pang with which I think of those who must be left—altho’ it would, I know all the time, be unkind to them & a wrong thing in itself, to risk my life by staying. As it is,—that is, if I go—Dr Chambers seems to be hopeful.– He believes that there is not at present, any ulceration of the lungs—only a too great fulness of the bloodvessels upon them; & he told me a fortnight ago, that he had grounds for hoping in the affected lung’s eventually recovering itself altogether. And it may please God, that I shd return next spring to rejoice in better health & a less helpless condition—& to rejoice in seeing you dearest Miss Mitford besides!
This is Saturday—& I began the letter I am writing, yesterday—& yesterday, too, I received yours. Thank you for letting me see Mr Hughes’s gratifying note [4] which I shall thank you for allowing me to keep in order to confront it with the proof. It shall be returned to you afterwards. But perhaps now that I am going to Torquay, I must not expect the proof? Must I not? Yet I hope I may. Do get it sent to me if you can. I have no corrected copy of the ballad by me.
There was some sort of reason for my alteration of the line in Margret [5] —though what it was, has quite escaped my memory. My impression however is, that I had detected the counterpart of the idea in some other person’s writings—& took refuge from a possible charge of plagiarism, of which I always have a nervous dread,—in the flow of the universe. I do not say that this was so—but that this is my impression & that a very faint one it is.
Keep the reviews which are sent to you—at least do not return them to us. The Metropolitan, Mr Kenyon says, I certainly wrote myself. [6] Blackwood pleased me very much. It is something to be in a cave with Professor Wilson & Mr Milnes—without being praised there. But you see, opinion runs almost everywhere—even in the Metropolitan article which I wrote myself!—against the Seraphim, & in favor comparatively, of the shorter poems– The extracts from Mr Milnes’s poems in Blackwood, will deeply delight you. The lay of the humble—The Long Ago—Familiar Love—Youth .. they are surpassingly exquisite!—— [7]
Your praise of my ‘candour’, my beloved friend, tells more of your own warm affections than of my praise! And let it be so!
But was Mr Henry Chorley really surprised that “Sister Seraphina-Angelica” did not fly into the tempest of a passion without any manner of reason for it?– Now it seems to me, that we of the Port Royal may very well keep our tempers––until we are provoked to lose them. Our saintship may prove itself so far!– [8]
What you tell me of him is very interesting, & makes me respond to your wish that I knew him personally. Does he write for the Tableaux this year? And does Mr Proctor? [9]
Mr Kenyon I saw yesterday. His continental plans are deferred as to the execution of them, until after the 15th before which day Mr Southey cannot come to London. [10] In the meanwhile Mr Landor is coming.
You do not say whether you are both well. I trust you are. Offer my kindest wishes & regards to Dr Mitford—and accept such from Papa & all this house. No day is fixed for my departure—which is to be by sea, for lack of strength for a land journey. May God ever bless you! I shall hear from you—shall I not?—at Torquay—whenever you can write without adding wearily to your too many occupations? Never tire yourself for me! May God bless you! It is foolish to feel as if this were a farewell to you—but forty miles and a hundred & seventy are so different!
Dearest Miss Mitford’s
EBB–
I am better. If Mr Townsend hath sent you or do send you some verses written by a female friend of his, requesting your opinion of them, will you tell me what it is?
You will think that there is at least as much disadvantage to me as honor, in the association with Mr Milnes—& you will think rightly—albeit I choose to dwell in my own thoughts upon the honor. If he be—as struck me at first—of Tennyson’s school .. quære .. whether he does not sit in the seat of the Master?——
I am so glad that Mr Deffell said good to you about my sister. [11] One day I do trust that you will know & love both my sisters––who are already well prepared—to use the coldest word—to love you! Henrietta’s predominant fondness is for music, & Arabel’s for drawing––for which I think she has a good deal of talent. I do trust that you will love my sisters.
The wind is audible– It seems to me that I cannot be on the sea until late in the next week, if then. Perhaps I hope I cannot—& yet it might be as well if the business were over. Adieu once more.
Mr Deffell’s family live in Harley Street close to us. His mother & sisters we have known by a very long acquaintanceship,—since our childhood—altho’ I dont feel as if I know them very well!—which is possible, you know. Henrietta has far more intercourse with them than I.
A letter ‘without an end’! in opposition to Mrs Austen!—— [12]
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 85–88.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by the still-tentative plans for EBB’s departure for Torquay.
2. This may be the pencil-case mentioned in letter 662.
3. Cf. Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, VIII, 26, 13–15.
4. John Hughes (1790–1857), author, linguist, draughtsman and wood-carver, was a friend of the Mitfords. He had published An Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone Made During the Year 1819 (1822) and The Boscobel Tracts (1830); he later put in print some of his early poetry, Lays of Past Days (1850). His note referred to EBB’s ballad for the new Findens’ Tableaux (see letter 662).
5. When EBB reprinted “The Romaunt of Margret” in The Seraphim, she made several changes from the text originally submitted to The New Monthly Magazine in 1836.
6. The review of The Seraphim in The Metropolitan Magazine (August 1838, pp. 97–101) said: “At our first glance at this extraordinary little book, we were singularly struck with the originality, ideality, earnestness, and masterly power of expression and execution; and a more careful examination has deepened this first impression, and awakened in us a great respect for the fair author’s uncommon learning. Whether she be qualified to split critical straws with a Parr or a Porson we know not, but she seems well read in the Greek poets, and perfectly imbued with their spirit.... The style and manner … remind us more of Shelley than of any other recent English writer. But there is a devotional glow, an almost seraph-like enthusiasm in this lady, which the unfortunate Shelley never reached … There is also here and there a happily reflected light from the great and good Wordsworth; and one or two of Miss Barrett’s minor pieces might be mistaken for the productions of the greatest of our poets since Milton.... We cannot quite agree with this truly-gifted writer that the awful mysteries of the christian faith are suited to mortal verse—we remember that even a Milton could here make the sublime ridiculous, or something worse—but we admire with a heart-warm admiration her intentions in this way; and the all-absorbing enthusiasm with which she advocates the cause of devotional poetry.” (For the full text, see pp. 383–385.)
7. See letter 657, note 3.
8. Chorley’s unsigned review in The Athenæum included the comment (p. 466): “She addresses herself to sacred song with a devotional ecstasy suiting rather the Sister Celestines and Angelicas of Port-Royal, than the religious poets of our sober Protestant communities.” Port Royal was a convent near Versailles censured by the Vatican for adherence to Jansenism. (For the full text of Chorley’s review, see pp. 375–378.)
9. Chorley’s “The Sister of Charity” was included in the 1839 Findens’ Tableaux. Procter (Barry Cornwall) did not contribute.
10. See letter 605, note 6.
11. John Henry Deffell and his family lived at no. 38 Upper Harley Street. As EBB later indicates, the Deffells had been family friends for a number of years—the earliest reference to them occurring in 1825 (see SD512).
12. A reference to The Story Without an End (1834), a translation from the German by Sarah Austin (née Taylor, 1793–1867).
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