833. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 92–94.
[Torquay]
July 25. 1841
Ever dearest George,
I squeeze myself in, you see, out of my turn, & intent to write to you again. The usual letter came yesterday (my first thought must be my first word) but with no decision in it!– Indeed Papa says justly that the weather was miserable all last week—only taking no note of the brightness of the saturday on which he wrote—that is, if the saturdays here & there wear the same aspect. Here, we have had one two & three days full of sunshine & warmth– Something must surely be decided soon– The weather refuses to hold up the train of a delay, an hour longer!–
Dearest Georgie, why dont we hear from you. It seems almost strange that we dont. I begin sometimes to think about the rail roads. Write, dearest George,—if but a line with a pencil under the bower of your wig!–
They are well in Wimpole Street—and here we are well too– For myself I gather strength,—get daily to the sofa, & sit up on it. Dr Scully has not seen me these three days. But what’s the use of it, if I stay on, wait on, in this dreary way? Well—there is not a remedy!– I cant vex Papa again, or have him vexed!– He will decide presently .. I hope still!–
From what he says, there has just arrived a bad, or worse than bad, account of the West Indian crops,—very bad indeed it seems to be. He hopes to pay the expenses of cultivation—but fears for his Statira [1] who cannot be properly laden– Altogether he felt too annoyed, he said, to go on writing.
Did anybody tell you (while we are on commercial matters) that the Newton bank had broken, [2] & that poor Dr Scully among others yet poorer, was a sufferer by six hundred & fifty pounds?–
Stormie, kind fellow, gave me Blanchard’s Life of LEL, the other day, [3] which though a wrong thing to do, was a thing I cd not choose but suffer gratefully. It is a dreary melancholy book—by no means satisfactory, in touching either upon her life or death. I shd like to hear you talk legally upon the evidence & the witnesses connected with the latter’s dark mystery, and leap at some conclusion for me. And then the biographer is parsimonious of her letters,—which always tell a story of life better, than the best abstract of it, elaborated by the cold hands of another.
I shall like to introduce Flush to you, Georgie, when we see each other—Mr Flush as they sometimes call him. He is such a companion to me all day long—lying close beside me—& when I move to the sofa, leaping there, beside me still, and always marking his sense of the change of place, by kissing me in a dog-way, most expressively. If Crow tells him to “go to Miss Barrett” in any part of the house—indeed she tried it this morning from the outside of the house—up he comes leaping & dancing & shaking the handle of my door. A sort of dog, George, to whom you could’nt reasonably refuse the franchise, in the case of any liberal extension of it. He understands almost every word you say! I like him to be beside me! It does’nt do anybody any harm.
Arabel’s rural entertainment to the school children answered very well—so everybody said—and they made delightful tea in kettles, upon a foundation of sugar & cream—or milk I think it was. Crow went—and I had my tea at four oclock instead of six on purpose not to cross their purposes.
Henrietta goes out indefatigably—quite wonderfully to me!—day after day, week after week—the consequence of course being, that when she falls back upon only us, we are found hard & dry. Stormie stands on the remote pole—refusing to leave the house, even for the purpose of worship. He is just as he was, dearest George,—just, altho’ I had hoped differently!—just,—except in a greater freedom & tendency towards conversation. With us, he talks continually & very cheerfully—I hear him talking for hours together through the wall. But I do wish the other wall of insuperable shyness cd be thrown down or blown down—or at the very least wd admit a window.
God bless you—ever & ever
Your most attached
Ba
Address: George Goodin Barrett Esqr / On the circuit / Hereford.
Publication: B-GB, pp. 71–74.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Named after the wife of Alexander the Great, this was described by EBB as “Papa’s own ship” in a letter of 1 September 1844 to Miss Mitford; we believe, however, that Edward Moulton-Barrett was a major share-holder in, rather than the sole owner of, the ship.
2. Newton Abbot, 6 m. N.W. of Taunton.
3. This volume formed part of lot 813 of Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A257).
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