SD1549. Mary Russell Mitford to Emily E. Jephson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 358–359 (in part).
[Swallowfield]
[19 February 1852]
I do not know, my very dear Emily, that I ever received more pleasure than from a most kind and charming letter from that delightful brother-in-law of yours, Mr. Starkey. … To-day I received, too, another letter from Mrs. Browning; she has seen George Sand, and is charmed with her. She came to Paris chiefly to solicit the President for a friend of hers. He received her most kindly, shook hands with her, and granted her request. (Those precious newspapers of ours said, if you remember, that he had exiled her.) Mrs. Browning is quite as enthusiastic for the Prince President as ever. To-day, too, came a packet of unbound sheets—a poem without a title-page, whose title I take to be “Verdicts.” It is on recent poets, and shows great boldness and talent. The page and a half given to me is most carefully and beautifully written, and with so much encomium that one cannot help thinking it must be by a friend. Mrs. Browning says George Sand is not “taller than I am,”—short, of a colourless, olive complexion, with dark, glowing eyes, black hair, and a noble countenance. She was very simply dressed (as a woman), in a room with a bed in it—her manner very kind, very quiet; a low, soft voice, an unemphatic utterance, rather calm than ardent. Now all this I knew except the shortness, which I can hardly believe even now; she must have looked so ill in doublet and hose. Mrs. Browning could not help stooping to kiss her hand, upon which Madame Sand threw her arms round her neck and kissed her upon the lips. …
Text: L’Estrange (1), II, 173–175.
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