685. Mary Russell Mitford to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 123–124.
Three Mile Cross,
Mar[ch] 28, 1839. [1]
My dear Friend,
I should always doubt any preference of mine when opposed to yours, always, even if my ignorance of languages did not make my writing about foreign poetry a very great presumption. French I read just like English, and always shall, and I have a tendency towards the comedies and memoirs, that makes me open a French book with real gusto. And little as I know of Italian, I like the gem-like bits of Ariosto. But after all to be English, with our boundless vistas in verse and in prose, is a privilege and a glory; and you are born among those who make it such, be sure of that. I do not believe, my sweetest, that the very highest poetry does sell at once. Look at Wordsworth! The hour will arrive, and all the sooner if to poetry, unmatched in truth and beauty and feeling, you condescend to add story and a happy ending, that being among the conditions of recurrence to every book with the mass even of cultivated readers—I do not mean the few.
I once remember puzzling an epicure by adding to an apple tart, in the making, the remains of a pot of preserved pine, syrup and all, a most unexpected luxury in our cottage; such would a bit of your writing be in a book of mine—flavour, sweetness, perfume, and unexpectedness.... Yes, for one year, from eight and a half to nine and a half—I lived—we lived, at Lyme Regis. Our abode was a fine old house in the middle of the chief street; a porch and great gables with spread-eagles distinguish it. It was built round a quadrangle, and the back looked into a garden, which descended by terraces to a small stream, a descent so abrupt that a grotto with its basin and spring formed a natural shelter under the hilly bank, planted with strawberries. Arbutus, passion-flowers, myrtles, and moss-roses abounded in that lovely garden and covered the front of the house; and the drawing-room chimney-piece was a copy of the monument to Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey. How I loved that house! There is an account of a visit to Lyme in Miss Austen’s exquisite “Persuasion.” [2] Some of the scenery in the back of the Isle of Wight resembles Pinny, but it is inferior.
I shall tell dear Lady Dacre of your sympathy. Heaven bless you, my own sweet love.
Ever yours,
M. R. Mitford.
Address: Miss Barrett, Torquay.
Text: L’Estrange (2), III, 96–97 (as 28 May 1839).
1. L’Estrange dates this letter 28 May 1839. However, Miss Mitford’s reference to adding pineapple to apple tart is mentioned by EBB in her letter of 10 April, so it appears probable that L’Estrange misread “Mar[ch]” as “May.” Also, the reference to Lady Dacre makes it apparent that this is a reply to letter 683.
2. In chapter XI.
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