Monday Sept 26th.
A splendid day; as if earth as well as Heaven were all sunshine. Breakfasted in the nursery; & off to Malvern before eight oclock. Called at Miss Steers’s, with Shelley’s poems. Could’nt get in on account of her being unwell, & not up. Mrs. Boyd, whom the sound of my chariot wheels, disturbed, emerged in her flannel robes to the top of the stairs, & received me very graciously indeed. But after talking with me a little, in her bedroom, she dismissed me into the drawing room, not into Mr. Boyd’s room—because, she said, he was breakfasting!— In a few minutes however, I was permitted, to try to be admitted. “How do you do , Mr. Boyd.” “Why Porsonia! can that be you?” “Did you not know of my being here?[”] “No! to be sure I did not. Have you been here long?” And when I explained about the breakfast, he remonstrated with me for delaying going in to him on such an account. I was glad to hear that remonstrance. Well! we talked a great deal, principally on religious subjects—, & I read to him some passages from St John’s gospel referring to the doctrine of Election & perseverance. He told me of Dr. A Clarke’s remark, in a sermon of his, on one of those passages. “Yes!—No man can pluck His sheep out of His hand—but they may slip thro’ His fingers”. Very unscriptural—& not very reverent.
We read another passage from Gregory’s Apologia—not a very fine one. Then we read the exordium of The Orations against Julian. It is majestic—μεγαλοΦωνοτατος.[1]
Mr. Boyd walked out a little with Miss Boyd; but when Miss Boyd returned into the drawing room, I did not immediately return into his sitting room, because she brought me no message from him. There I sate for a quarter of an hour—twenty minutes—& no message came. I was beginning to be offended, when Mrs. Boyd proposed my going to him. “Wd. he not send for me, if he wished me to go?” “No! it is disinterestedness that prevents him from sending”. So I went, & found Mr. Boyd beginning to be offended too. “He had shortened his walk on purpose that he might hear me read on: he thought that I liked reading. I knew that he had gone out only for exercise,—& therefore it seemed unnecessary to him that he shd. send a message to me, when I cd. not be ignorant of his having returned”. Then I[2] was “sorry that he had shortened his walk on my account.” Then He “certainly liked walking; but he liked hearing me read too”. Not very flattering—I was obliged to be satisfied. “Since my return, I have been amusing myself in making observations on you,—on the manner in which you have arranged my books. You certainly are the most careless creature about books, that is possible.”
After our long Milonian dinner, he went out again. Mrs. Boyd walked out with him then. What can be the reason that I am never asked to walk out with him?— I should like very much to know; and yet perhaps it is as well that I do not know it. Ah! It is that, that I fear!--
We talked till the carriage came which it did at half past five; & Mrs. Boyd drove with me to nearly the bottom of the great hill. The last time I was there with her, was the first time I met Mr. Boyd!— So Miss Bordman returns on Wednesday!—& has sent her “very very best love” to me. It must be a mere orientalism,—& I do not like orientalisms. I have heard too many of them.
At the chances pitch turnpike, I met the three youngest little Peytons, & took them up in the carriage, & put them down at Barton Court door.[3] Berry Peyton is a dear interesting little child,—but woe unto me for making her my company; inasmuch as Mrs. Griffith came to the door & sent by me to Bummy a message about our drinking tea with her & meeting the Biddulphs there on Friday.
Commended generally, on my arrival at home, for coming home in such good time. Too good time—if I am commended for it!— The last occasion in the world, on which I would practise works of supererogation.
Henrietta has been to the Commelines[4] with Mrs. Martin, during my absence; & Bro, shooting partridges with Mr. Martin. We compared notes of happiness—& each of us contended for the prize. Surely I[5] was happiest!—
1. “Grandiloquent.”
2. Underscored twice.
3. Returning to Hope End from Ruby Cottage by the southern route (i.e., by way of Little Malvern, avoiding the Wyche) one left the Chances Pitch Turnpike some six hundred yards south of Barton Court. Excepting the newly-born baby, the three youngest Peytons were Charles William (b. 1823), Elizabeth Rosetta (b. 1825) and Eliza Berry (b. 1827).
4. The Rev James Commeline, his wife, son and two daughters had been on friendly terms with the Barretts from their earliest days at Hope End. He was Vicar of Redmarley D’Abitot, 6 miles S.E. of Ledbury. He later “unhappily fell asleep while reading Horace in bed & was burnt to death” (letter dated 8 March 1889, from George Moulton-Barrett to Robert Browning, ms at Eton College).
5. Underscored twice.
