SD1289. Anna Brownell Jameson to Lady Noel Byron
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 365–366 (in part).
Pisa
Oct 15– [1846]
Hotel della Vittoria
very comfortable
& most civil people
I had the comfort of finding your letter of the 3d on my arrival here yesterday—we have brought our dear Invalid in safety to what she fondly calls her “home”—as they purpose spending the winter here—I wrote to you from Avignon, dear friend—& of our subsequent adventures have only to say that on the 11 we embarked at Marseilles—had a most stormy passage of 26 hours to Genoa—remained there (our boat stopping) a night & a day—a most stormy passage that night to Leghorn where we landed at 8 next morning (the 14) & came on here by the rail road as soon as possible– I suffered so dreadfully during the Voyage that I have not yet recovered– It is like your self to sympathise with me so kindly about my friends– They are really excellent—but with all the abundance of love, & sense & high principles—I have had now & then a tremour at my heart about their future—he is full of spirit & good humour & his unselfishness—& his turn for making the best of every thing & his bright intelligence & his rare acquirements of every kind rendered him the very prince of travelling companions—but—(always buts!!) he is in all the common things of this life the most impractical of men—the most uncalculating—rash—in short the worst manager I ever met with. She—in her present state—& from her long seclusion almost helpless—now only conceive the ménage that is likely to ensue & without fault on either side!—but no more of that—for the present our first care is to get her into some comfortable Lodging[—]no easy matter—when I have helped in this as far as I can, I shall consider that I have performed my undertaking—& shall either fix myself here or at Florence for a month—here if I can find masters & instruction in art for Gerardine—if not, at Florence— but mean time direct to Pisa … I have just seen EB—looking wonderfully well—considering all the fatigue undergone—under her husband’s influence & mine she is leaving off those medecines on which she existed ether, morphine, &c & I am full of hope for her[.]
Address, on integral page: The / Lady Noel Byron / Esher / Surrey / Angleterre.
Publication: The New Colophon, 1950, pp. 118–119.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
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