SD1322.1. Mary Clarke to Florence Nightingale

Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 14.

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[ca. July 1847]

What sort of a man is this Monsieur Browning? What I read of his poetry in these beastly reviews it is true I was not much charmed with; he appears, as I recollect them, very inferior to his wife. The greater the merit in his falling in love, but I can’t bear to see women “dowking,” as they call it in Leicestershire, which means bending the knees to make oneself look shorter, and they do it when being drawn for the Militia. Now women are very apt to do that when their husband or lover has half an inch less than themselves. …

Text: I. B. O’Malley, Florence Nightingale (London, 1931), p. 131.

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