752. Harriet Martineau to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 267–268.
12. Front St Tynemouth. Northumberland.
April 8th [1840] [1]
Dear Mr Browning
Your book & kind note have reached me. I meant to have delayed this acknowledgment, & my hearty thanks for your gift, till I had read “Sordello”, & could thank you for it, as well as for remembering me: but your note shows such kind anxiety & concern for my health & comfort, that I cannot but write at once to tell you that my friends must not be unhappy about me. I cannot say that I am better; nor do I anticipate being better for a very long time to come: but I am not quite idle, & I am perfectly happy.
I removed hither 3 weeks ago, for the sake of a fine sea-view, & fresh air,—very important things to one who is confined to the house. Another object gained is perfect leisure & quiet. While I have no other call upon my strength, I can write a little; & I do it with a delight I never experienced before. A multitude of relations are only half an hour distant, by rail-road; & one welcome face or another is frequently looking in upon me; & I am taken the very best care of. Then I have letters innumerable, from kind friends who do not wait for answers. I assure you I am not at all to be pitied. At the same time, I admit that I am not better, & that there is no anticipating the time of my return to town.
Have you heard that we have lost my kind, dear aunt Lee. Little as you saw of her, you will be able to believe that hers was a faultless old age. We shall miss & mourn her long. My mother has been too ill herself to arrange the plans rendered necessary by this event, & by the pulling down of poor old Fludyer St, of wh we have received notice. [2] We hope the first thing she will do will be to visit us in the North.
If you see the Macreadys, pray give my kindest remembrances to them.
I hope “Sordello,” with wh you have taken so much pains, will be a crown to you. I long to sit down to it.
Believe me very truly yours
H. Martineau.
Publication: The Collected Letters of Harriet Martineau, ed. Deborah Anna Logan (London, 2007), 2, 47–48.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Dated by her acknowledgement of Sordello.
2. Until illness forced her to leave London, Miss Martineau and her mother had occupied a house at 17 Fludyer Street, Westminster. Robson’s Royal Court Guide for 1840 lists Mrs. Lee, Miss Martineau’s late aunt, as residing there also.
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