SD1775. Mary Russell Mitford to William Cox Bennett

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 380 (in part).

[Swallowfield]

18 September 1854

Your most kind letter my very dear friend arrived with 9 others and a packet …

Robert Browning has no sense of duty– (It was I who told you of those two books to be)– I suggested to his wife that they might make use of their reputation by writing prose—as I did– Mr. Barrett has had a terrible accident—getting out of an omnibus he was run over by a cabriolet and something broken about the hip which cannot be set, and although it brings no present danger to life, will leave him uncurably and terribly lame. This will change all his habits. He used to go into the city every day having made his great West India Estates profitable by being his own Merchant and his own shipowner– His children are most attentive and he bears the calamity with great fortitude. His daughter ought to return to England—but I doubt their doing so—she should take the chance a circumstance finding forgiveness. …

Publication: None traced.

Source: Typescript at Berkshire Record Office.

___________________