SD1159. Mary Russell Mitford to Lucy Olivia Anderdon
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 379 (in part).
[Three Mile Cross]
November 1841
… Did I tell you that at Mr. Lucas’s I fell in with the young artist who illustrates Mr. Dickens’s and Mr. Lever’s works—Mr. Browne? If you have happened to look at those very dramatic and storytelling little pictures, you will, I think, be struck with their extraordinary individuality and variety. As soon as Mr. A[nderdon] returns to Farley Hill, I expect that he and Mr. Lucas will come down to us for the purpose of seeing his fine collection, chiefly the Salvator Rosa and the Murillos, of which Mr. Lucas never ceased to talk. Mr. Haydon, whom I missed, is coming to me on Saturday to talk about his fresco. It is very delicate and silvery; but I cannot but think the want of shadow will tell against it in a large picture—no depth. It might do for Cupids and Graces, and for Coreggio’s bright-haired angels; but no human being, except Queen Elizabeth, can one fancy without shade—which almost means without light. Nevertheless it is very pure and bright; and I shall like to hear the artist (who talks well) talk about it. I wish you were to be of the party. Every day at tea we talk of Mr. O[liver] A[nderdon]’s exquisite kindness. I could not speak of it at Farley Hill because there was company. I longed to do so; for towards such persons there is a real and a deep pleasure in gratitude—in the expression as well as the feeling.
Besides that sweetest and highest of women, our precious Miss Barrett, you will like the rest of the family. They have some fine pictures, and there is a miniature of Miss Barrett when a child, with wings, upon a snuff-box, which really seems a foreshowing of her character, it is so spiritual and lovely. See how I go back to that beloved one! But you will pardon the fondness that prompts the repetition; and some day or other you will join in the feeling as thoroughly as myself. …
Text: Chorley, I, 190–191.
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