SD1016. Arabella Moulton-Barrett to Samuel Moulton-Barrett (brother)
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 353–354 (in part).
Wimpole St
Monday. July 1st [1839] [1]
My beloved Sam, Georgie says I am to write to you by this packet, because he promised you a letter; & he always fulfils his promises in this respect by making some one write them for him. But although his not performing his promise rightly is of course a great loss to you, yet it is the means of giving me a great deal of pleasure. The next best thing to seeing you both, is having this means of communication with you, & in spite of Papa’s opinion & that of some of the prudents here, that it wd be better to defer writing to you until the next packet, I am following my own opinion, or rather my own inclinations, as women generally do– And here am I sitting in the armchair in my room, with yr beautiful writing case on my knee, dearest Sam, & making use of yr pen & inkstand, & thinking only of you & dearest Stormie. Indeed I have thought of little else for the last four days—& I don’t think I ever spent so much of my time at the window since I came to London as I have within these last few days & nights, in watching the wind & clouds. It appears to me to be quite a dream my beloved Sam & Stormie, that you have really gone & I can even now scarcely believe it. May God who has separated us, keep & preserve you where you now are, & bless you in every way– It was hard to part, but as we know that all things are ordained by God, we know that all things are for the best. And though we are absent from each other, we can pray for each other[.] How often I pray for you both, God only knows– Mr Hunter, who is now with us, always prays for you every morning & night in midst of us all. Christ has said “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it”—& He will answer us in blessing you! Your united letter came when we were at dinner on Saturday after the post had gone out, & as a favorable wind has been blowing ever since, every one seemed to think it wd be foolish to write to Deal. The pilot cd not have deliver[ed] it as soon as he ought. We were so delighted to receive it & to hear that so far, all was well, & that you, Stormie, were particularly well, contrary to all our expectations. We have now agreed in supposing that as yr head had not turned in spite of the head wind, it may continue to be as steady during the rest of the voyage. Shall we not hear from you again until we hear from Madeira? Every body seems to think not! How very anxious we shall be for that letter! Do not, either of you, allow yourselves to be for one half hour unhappy. Do not, dearest Sam & Stormie. Think how much we love you—& although this great sea does roll between us, we are very near to you in our thoughts and whilst you, dear Sam, are fulfilling all yr duties at Cinnamon Hill, & dear Stormie at Cambridge, you are to think that just then we are engaged with thinking of you & probably talking of you. Oh, Stormie, if you had gone to Australia, how unhappy we shd have been. Jamaica is much too far & we have only now to look forward to a happy meeting again—now that the parting is past: You must both of you make yr fortunes as quickly as possible[.] Be very economical—only remember we shall expect to see you long before your fortunes are made! May God bring us together again in his own good time! But you will skip over all that I have written to find out something of Ba, & I think it was very inconsiderate of me not to begin my letter with intelligence of her. Last Saturday’s letter was from her to Papa. A very long letter, filled with plans. She knew nothing then of yr departure. Today, the letter is from Henrietta. Bro had received yr letter the day before & had told them. They are both of course very much distressed. Henrietta says much of having seen you only for one fortnight, & desires me to write immediately & tell them every particular about yr going[.] “Our dear Ba was very much grieved about it last night, & did not sleep very well but is quite comfortable this morning.” It was very grievous indeed, dearest Sam, that you were not able to spend more of yr time with them, but perhaps after all, it is as well as it has happened. Ba could not have borne the parting from you. When you return, may this affliction be taken from us. If so, what a happy meeting it will be! All this pain & trouble will only make it the happier– But to tell you of all the news contained in Henrietta’s letters– Uncle Hedley is still at Torquay packing up his books & furniture wh is to be moved directly to Southampton, when he is to follow, with the boys. Arabel & Ibbet went last Wednesday– I am so sorry for it for their sakes. Poor Ba is very much distressed about it. She will indeed miss all their kindness. Ba has taken a great dislike for Southampton, & she has written to Papa to tell him she is afraid to go there, on account of the dampness of the place, occasioned by all the wet mud of the river—& to propose at the same time remaining at Torquay this summer & the next winter, as it is certainly now doing her good. She begs Papa to let us all go there for the summer– Without he gives his consent, she says she will come either to Southampton or to Hastings, where she may be able to see us. I fear there is little chance of Papa’s thinking of taking us such a distance—but we shall see! Fanny has been writing such a panegyric upon us all to Bummy. You & George were “very fine young men, but too fine, to accept evening invitations”[.] So many opportunities you had of accepting them! They go away tomorrow week. Arabella has taken a house at Windsor for a year. George paid them his Sunday’s visit yesterday, & he saw them all but A. who was in bed, with a bad head ache, occasioned as Fanny says “by the frenzy of delight she was in with her house.” Mr Hunter came on the evening of the day on wh you went. He was so grieved he had not come the day before that he might have seen you & have gone with you to Gravesend. He was lamenting it all [t]he evening. And I was as sorry that he had not seen you as he was himself. Then Tom Peyton came & dined here. He was very nearly going to follow you to Grave[s]end. What a day, a miserable day it was! Did you remember that it was Bro’s birthday? I don’t think we ever spent it so unhappily before & I trust we never may again! How dreadfully we miss you both! Our party at dinner is now so small, that we cannot but feel melancholy at the thought of so many who are so dear to us, being absent from us! At twelve o’clock on the day you left us, Occy said he has directions from Stormie to go & open his press, wh he did, & brought down heaps of presents. My dearest Stormie, do believe how much I thank you & love you! We, all of us, do thank you much more than I can tell you, & shall indeed value yr presents. I am sure you must have both ruined yourselves in the number of valuable things you bought for us. But it is pleasant to have them for the sake of those who gave them to us!– I am not going to write any more now, as every one says it is more than probably the second packet will arrive before you do in Jamaica[.] Forgive all the stupidity of this letter, It is only four days since you were here, therefore there really is not much to tell you of. Every body from Papa down to Occy send you both their very best love. May God preserve you where you are, & bless you with His richest blessings.
Dearest Sam’s & Stormies most affectionate
Arabel–
The packet has come in, & brought intelligence of Mr R Barrett’s death. You will be as surprised as we were to hear it. Mind, Stormie, practice hard on your cornucopean—& be in good spirits.
Address, on integral page: S. M. Barrett Esq / Retreat Pen / Brown’s Town / St Ann’s / Jamaica.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
1. Year provided by postmark.
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