SD1220. Mary Russell Mitford to Henrietta Harrison
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 317 (in part).
[Three Mile Cross]
December 21st, 1844
I cannot enough tell you, my very dear friend, how much I rejoice at your very kind letter. …
The last work of Elizabeth Barrett, my other very dear friend, has been largely diffused in America (where a large edition was simultaneously printed), and full half of the English edition is already gone. Have you seen the volumes? The two poems that conclude each volume are most beautiful. The two great ones, “A Drama of Exile,” and “A Vision of Poets,” I like much less—or rather, not at all, in spite of occasional fine passages. She is a woman of the highest genius, but she is obscure. Do you know Mrs. Archer Clive (the V. of “Blackwood”)? I think that you would like her verses; and I am sure that you would like her. I met Mrs. Gore, the authoress, in London this year, at a party given to bring us together, and was quite amused at her resemblance to her books: such thorough worldliness I never saw before, and never shall again.
What do you think of Mesmerism? Miss Martineau’s case has made a great stir.
Text: Chorley, II, 12–13.
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