779. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 305–306.
[Torquay]
[mid-December 1840] [1]
Ever ever dearest Miss Mitford & dear Dr Mitford,
May I say so? May I thank both of you for letting me & liking me to have Flush the second? I do, you see—if I may or not. I must. No dog in the world cd please me so—and if really & truly I dare accept him, that is if you are quite unrepentant of your kind proposal, why there is nothing to be done but to be ready to receive him at the earliest moment, & to love him at all moments, for your sake, until we reach the ‘inherent merit,’ the loveability for his own.
But dearest Miss Mitford, we have considered, & enquiries have been made for me at the Hotel here,—& it is matter of assurance that there is no room for fear, if you send him directly hither through Basingstoke. Send him by the railroad to Basingstoke, with a direction on the card .. ‘to be forwarded by the first Exeter coach’—& the coachman both there & at Exeter will be commissioned to feed him & see to his comfort generally. There is no danger Mr Webb [2] assured my councillor—that is, if he is packed carefully in a hamper.
But then comes my dread– Is it not a robbery?—or rather shall you not miss him?– Will Dr Mitford miss him? Will Flush (the first) miss him? Now I trust to you not to grieve me by suffering such things to be.
And if the kindness says ‘no’, will you write to mention the very day he sets out—so that the coachman may be prepared? And oh thank you .. for your first thoughts at least.
If Flush the second comes, he is sure to be loved. The logic is so strong!– There is no escape from the conclusion of love.
My dearest Miss Mitford! do you know your letter this morning made me quite smile—quite amused—I mean the part of it relating to the country gentlemen versus the poets—more especially, to that poor ‘neutralized poet’—the cross between poet & sportsman. Dearest Miss Mitford! And I so obstinate all the time!! And none of the eternized great spirits, [3] who were poets & were never country gentlemen, haunting you!!
When there is an opportunity I will lend you my Chaucer to read [4] —so dont think of getting it. Mr Horne’s Indroduction [sic] has both beauty & wisdom—although I secede from one or two of his sayings—that is, I think I do, while he thinks I dont. [5] After all, I fear the book is sure to be left, for the most part, in the publisher’s hands, & that no second volume will be called for. [6]
In regard to the Tableaux, I compassionate with you, Mr Townsend’s daughter—or would, if that feeling were not too soft for the occasion. Such things always make me angry—not at their delicacy, but indelicacy [7] . I do assure you most seriously & sincerely, that one suspicion of
<…> [8]
Does Miss Niven write as well as ride?– [9] or have you converted her? Do tell me of your own writing. Do my beloved friend. I love you always.
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 208–209.
Manuscript: Folger Shakespeare Library and Wellesley College.
1. Dated by the impending arrival of Flush, the first offspring of Miss Mitford’s Flush.
2. E. Webb was the proprietor of the Royal Hotel, whence coaches ran daily between Torquay and Exeter.
3. Cf. Keats, “Addressed to Haydon” (1816), line 1.
4. EBB’s copy of The Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer, Modernized formed lot 568 of Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A628).
5. EBB had reservations about some of the current usages substituted for Chaucer’s words. They are noted in EBB-RHH, I, 110–114.
6. There was no second volume.
7. The significance of EBB’s remark is not known. Townsend had contributed a poem, “Home,” to the recently-published Findens’ Tableaux. At this time he had one living daughter from his first marriage, Charlotte Rickards Townsend (1827–58).
8. The conclusion of the letter is missing, except for the following sentences written across the top of the first page.
9. The formal mode of address suggests that the reference is to Mrs. Niven’s sister-in-law, rather than to Miss Mitford’s protégée, Agnes Niven.
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