SD2070. Thomas Woolner to Emily Tennyson

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 258 (in part).

27, Rutland Street, N.W.,

April 28, 1857.

My dear Mrs. Tennyson,

Many thanks for several kind little notes telegraphing the great man’s movements: I am glad that …

I was grieved to hear the death of Mr. Barrett, not on the old gentleman’s account but because I know the distress it will occasion to poor Mrs. Browning, who quite worshipped the old man however unworthy of it he was. He never would be reconciled to her after her marriage, but adopted the somewhat odd plan of hating her for the deed. Poor Mrs Browning bribed the butler to let her father’s dining room blind remain up a little way that she might obtain one glimpse of him from the street, before she started for Florence. She was so weak the poor little creature had to hold on by area rails while she looked her last at her cruel father, then went home and spent the evening in crying.

Another of the old gentleman’s whims was not to allow either of his sons to learn any business or profession.

Text: Amy Woolner, Thomas Woolner, R.A., Sculptor and Poet: His Life in Letters (London, 1917), p. 133.

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