SD995. Samuel Moulton-Barrett (brother) to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 349 (in part).
[London]
[ca. April 1839]
My dearest Addles.
I have been I very much fear, a somewhat ungrateful correspondent in not sooner acknowledging my thanks to you for your two letters; I am sensible of my fault, in the full consciousness of which I seize my pen to balance accounts between us– I had hoped to have been with you some days ago, To have made a retrog[r]ade movement in the season of the year by leaving our leaves, & our |lives| in full bloom. To have |contrasted| your buds & your coming Spring, but alas I was persuaded by the effects of a too copious libation to Bacchus, which has produced consequences, any thing but portable or moveable– The day before yesterday I was confined to my room entirely, yesterday I thought myself better & went down to Deptford, & today I have gone backwards– A good cleansing out will possibly mend all, & enable me to go down to you free from the impurities of London, & lighter by the addition of a few grains of Calomel, & an ounce or two of Salts. If you wait to see fine weather, you must come hither, & enjoy with it at the same time Strawberries, & young Peas—Mackerell & Turtle– If I could confine winds as Aeolus of old did, I would devise some method of keeping fine weather, & generously send you a quart or two to do your Souls & bodies good– Yesterday was a most spendid day, not unpleasantly hot, nor too windy, but just sufficient of heat & wind to make shade agreeable, & to fan ones cheeks– We started at eleven at Westminster Bridge, shot London Bridge in a fine style impelled down a height of near 5 feet by a rapid current, & whirled around twice or thrice by the whirlpools which are occasioned, & then proceeded, through a forest of Masts, collected from all parts of the World; & leaving persons from Cleopatra down to the Molly from Sunderland, & from Hercules, to the John & Mary from Newcastle, To the Dock Yard at Deptford– There we saw Ships building in all their different Stages, ships repairing, & finally the Kings Yacht, splendidly fitted up with glasses, & gilding, a fine place which cost 800£, & 6 Water closets for the sole use & occupation of the Royal pleasure & convenience; Having like loyal Subjects, warmly expressed our delight at this last proof of the liberality of subjects towards their King being “five” times more liberal to him than even Providence had been, we embarked again; & under the guidance of a Desk Clerk, rowed off to the Ships about to sail on the Voyage of discovery– Never did I see so heterogeneous a mixture before, Lords & Ladies, Vulgars & Vulgaresses mixed up like a plum pudding Store, or a Pawn broker’s Shop, a [illegible word] here was impossible, Men & Women of all classes & denominations stuck to each other like the links of a chain, & went here & there as they were moved by the first & last links. In adhesion to a Dutchess & a Soldiers Wife I contrived to see in the course of my current the general arrangements of the Ship, The wonderful neatness with which it was fitted up, all the means that were taken to promote warmth when they should be deprived of the light of the Sun for many days, by means of warm air conveyed through Pipes in every part of the Ship, Guns, boats &c. I saw so much that I was heartily pleased, & tired, & never felt much more satisfaction than when I got out again unencumbered of my two fixtures—as I am rather of a prying disposition & like |really| to see Women, & particularly Ladies placed in situations where an exhibition both of person & mind is to be made, & then the ways & means that they devize to show off to most advantage, or to conceal with most effect, I stationed myself at a short distance from the bottom of the ladder, which was suspended from the Ship’s Side, & down which the Ladies were obliged to to come– I wont enumerate all the difficulties what your poor Sam had to encounter before they were fairly deposited in their boats, the impudence of some, the affected & the real modesty of others were as various, & remarkable as the difference of their Stockings, & the diameter of their legs– A large fat woman not very young, & somewhat deranged in her dress & appearance by the presence of the crowd downstairs, where she had occupied the place of two persons, instead of one, complained loudly of the inconvenience of ladders, & protested for some time against a descent without all eyes were averted; This being impossible to arrange in a free Country, & no alternative presenting itself, She at last besought a Jack Tar “to take hold of her legs”, but the sly Dog perceiving that they were considerably beyond his grasp, replied very meaningly, “It be’nt possible Ma’am.” <***>
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Altham Archive.
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