856. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 133–135.
London.
Sept. 25. 1841.
The pause of a day brings me another dear letter for which to be glad & grateful. Thank you my beloved friend—and thank you above all for what you say of the coming. I am sure I am in fairyland all at once—I must be! Only think of how I was a few weeks ago—shut up in a dark room with its associations tugging at my heartstrings—everything I could see, everything I cd hear, to the very footsteps on the stairs, giving me pain—& just beneath the window (for our house was the lowest down of all upon the shore) that dreadful perpetual sound!– When I think of it, it makes me shudder & wonder how I cd live on there so long!– But we dont know what we can bear—and only a few weeks since it was so! And now—to be at home again—to see the dear faces—no more thought of goodbyes—everybody smiling as if grief were not in the world—& this dream of seeing you, set as a crown upon the general gladness. No wonder that I shd wonder! Thank you & dear Dr Mitford for being glad for me! It is a renewing of life to me. Not that the deep grief is not here still—like the clay beneath the grass. That must be: but I could not without sullenness, be insensible to the full pleasantness of the sweet dewy verdure, which has sprung up so suddenly after a long desolation. ‘Shall we receive evil from the Lord’s hand, & not good?’ [1] May His goodness forbid that evil!–
Forgive my wanderings, beloved friend! Fairy-bewitched people dont always know what they say & are very apt to “wander in their talk[.]” I was thinking last night that when you come & drop the silver penny into my shoe, [2] our dear Mr Kenyon might just as well be here to take his chance for a penny too! What do you think? His time for returning to town will soon strike! And would’nt it be selfish of me not to give him a chance? ‘I pause for a reply’. [3] You see how conscientious I am grown. But not to be overvirtuous so as to lose my cakes & ale, [4] could’nt we prevail upon dear Dr Mitford to part from you without sighing oftener than once, for longer than the day? Could’nt we! I wd not grieve him for the world, & I know too so well how the very fancy of his sighing twice wd make you restless & unhappy away from him. But then my fancy is, that he wd be better satisfied in securing you from fatigue. He knows, & so do I, that you wd certainly be tired in that sudden going & coming. You wd be out of breath with it!–
Thank you for the delightful chronicle of Flush. He must come too, you know! I long I long to see him. And pray dont forget to thank K. & Ben for their kindness about putting up the basket so beautifully!– How fully & truly & utterly I agree with you in all you say about the luxury or rather necessary of having people round you who love you, yes, & whom you love again. The Edgeworth doctrine (not peculiar to that rational cold school) in regard to domestics, was always abhorrent to me. To teach children “not to talk to servants”!! And a bible in your room—and God above you—& the quick sense of universal brotherhood at your heart!– It is an atrocity both in morals & instincts!– [5]
I must not let you fancy that Papa does not like Flush, because Flush for a day or two made Papa nervous. No indeed—I prophecy that Mr Flush will, in time, climb into favoritism. He is admired already.
My brothers Charles John (Stormie we call him) & Henry have two splendid dogs chained up in the yard—one of them a bloodhound & the other an Alpine mastiff, Catiline & Resolute—and Flush who violently objected to them at first, admits them now occasionally into his society—that is, he has condescended to walk out with them once or twice.
God bless you my ever beloved friend! Thank you for all yr kindness—but to the geranium extravaganza I say “Oh no, no indeed!” That is too much–
But ever & ever yours
E B Barrett–
I am very glad of your judgment upon the medecine—very glad—altho’ I anticipated it.
Address: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / near Reading.
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 281–283.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Cf. Job, 2:10.
2. We cannot identify EBB’s allusion. The editors of EBB-MRM refer to a suggestion that a silver penny purchased entry to Fairyland (see EBB-MRM, I, 282, note 2).
3. Julius Caesar, III, 2, 34.
4. Cf. Twelfth Night, II, 3, 115–116. The expression “cakes and ale” was synonymous with pleasure and revelry.
5. Chapter IV of Practical Education (1798) by Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth offered advice on teaching privileged children how to comport themselves with servants. “Familiarity between servants and children cannot permanently increase the happiness of either party.... A boy who has been used to treat a footman as his playfellow, cannot suddenly command from him that species of deference, which is compounded of habitual respect for the person, and conventional submission to his station … Children should never be suffered to speak imperiously to their attendants … There is, however, a great deal of difference between treating servants with kindness and with familiarity.”
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