SD2000. William Bell Scott to Thomas Woolner

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 259 (in part).

Newcastle,

December 4, 1856.

My dear Woolner,

Your Browning came all right a day or two ago. Many thanks for it. … The medallion is a splendid piece of work, quite equal to Carlisle [Carlyle] I think, but what a different subject you have had to handle. … Some men’s works rise in one’s estimation infinitely after knowing the authors, and in all cases the peculiarities and characteristics receive great additional interest. But the connection between Browning’s face and his works seems to me as little understandable as well can be. Of course his conversation would connect the two immediately but his head is I think the most unprepossessing poet’s head it is well possible to imagine. Both the Brownings are certainly greatly and profoundly endowed, the first things of Mrs. B.’s I recollect quite carried me away, but his last volumes contain more wonderful lights than any books I know. Her new poem I have not yet read, but I have the notices in the Spectator & Athenæum . …

Text: Amy Woolner, Thomas Woolner, R.A., Sculptor and Poet: His Life in Letters (London, 1917), pp. 124–125.

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