SD2162. Katharine Mary MacRae to Recollections
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 348–349 (in part).
[Florence]
[31 May 1858]
I have often been asked to write my recollections of a visit made by my Aunt Emily to Mrs. Browning.
But I am afraid that the recollections of a little girl will be found too vague & meagre to interest her friends.
My aunt Miss Emily Burgwyn lived with her Father Mr John Fanning Burgwyn & her brother at the Casa Paveri, on the Via Romano. The gardens of Casa Paveri opened into the Boboli gardens which were the gardens of the Pitti Palace.
One of the pleasures of that life in Florence was the afternoon drive to the Cascine where the gay world listened to the music of a military band, the ladies sat in their landaus & received visits from the men of their acquaintance. Mr Charles Lever was one of those who came to our landau. The flower girls of Florence came also bringing baskets of beautiful flowers. One afternoon my dear Aunt thinking of the shut-in life of the poet Mrs Browning, and wishing that she could enjoy the sunshine & the flowers of her beloved Florence, thought that if Mrs Browning could not come to the Cascine, the flowers of the Cascine could be brought to her, & yielding to that sweet impulse, she filled a basket with the most fragrant and beautiful flowers she could find, and ordered the coachman to drive to Casa Guidi. On arriving there Giachimo was told to take the flowers to the apartments of Mr & Mrs Browning, leave them at once & run down stairs. They to be left without a card or name.
Aunt Emily said we waited a long time for Giac[h]imo & when he returned he said Mr Browning would not let him return until he gave the name of the sender.
A few days after, Mr Browning called, either my aunt was out or did not receive him. I think that Mr Browning called a second time. Finally it was arranged between some mutual friends, that if Miss Burgwyn would name a certain time Mrs Browning would be happy to receive her.
I can well remember the climb up the stone stairs entering in a large oblong room. A very fragile & delicate looking lady standing by her couch greeting Aunt Emily & stooping to kiss me.
I do not remember anything that was said. Aunt Emily said that during the visit Mr Browning showed her a [sketch] of Tennyson, & that he spoke in high praise of the Poet Laureate.
I knew that my Aunt’s preference was for the poems of Mrs Browning. “The Lost Bower,” “The Cry of the Human.” etc.
I have read that Mr Browning considered that his wife’s poems showed more completely the poetic impulse than his own.
Mr Browning looked the strong healthy Englishman that he was. Mrs Browning had large grey eyes, brown hair parted falling over her cheeks. My aunt was then a picture of womanly loveliness. Her face radiant with beauty, truth & high intelligence. The little girl whom Mrs Browning stooped to kiss, had the temerity in after life to write an Essay upon “Rabbi Ben Ezra,” and publish a pamp[h]let entitled “Thoughts Conducive [to] a World Order & a World Harmony.”
N.B. In those days there [were] no florists & sending flowers was not a matter of daily occuranc [sic].
Publication: BSN, 28 (December 2003), 68–69.
Manuscript: University of North Carolina.
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