SD1745. Mary Brotherton to Frederick Tennyson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 368 (in part).
Rome
May 12th, 1854
My dear Mr Tennyson,
I should have thanked you sooner for your last most welcome and delightful note, but I thought I would wait till something was fixed touching our journey to England—and fancied every day would enable us to say when we should depart. …
When you see her (I need hardly name Miss Blagden) I should wish you to express to her my just indignation—in the deepest and awfullest utterances—and if she exhibits signs of contrition you may hold out hopes of peace. Seriously, I am vexed not to have had a line from her since her departure, & to have had tidings of her only through the Brownings and other mutual friends. …
The Brownings talk of leaving Rome in a short time for Florence after which they go to Paris & England. I like them more & more—especially Mrs Browning, who is one of the most loveable as well as gifted beings I have ever known. I like Mr Browning too very much—though we differ as often as we meet on every possible topic—so that he declares that we must be “natural enemies.” …
All you said about the spiritual manifestations interested me very much. I showed it to the Brownings. Mrs Browning of course entirely disagreed with it, & maintained that you did not argue on facts. I wish she would answer that part of your letter, which she is abler to do—for I own it seemed to me in most part unanswerable. …
Publication: Letters to Frederick Tennyson, ed. Hugh J. Schonfield (London, 1930), pp. 124–128.
Manuscript: Harvard University.
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