SD2079. Bessie Rayner Parkes to Elizabeth Parkes
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 260 (in part).
Florence.
May 16, 1857.
My dearest Mother,
Here I found my letter, which I was very glad to get, for I really seemed to have got out of the current of the world, and did not know what to arrange about Emma. Our dear Travellers will be gone ere you get this, and it is at least a comfort to think they have the best of the year for their voyage. My great desire is to get you to Northumberland; I cannot conceive why you should not go for 2 months to the place of your birth, with me. So many sympathies and interests draw me to America, and I want you to go with me.
Aunt Marianne and Uncle William’s going away will seem a terrible gap when I come back; they are so completely associated with all my earliest memories. I am so glad Aunt Sarah would get up in time.
I have been in an awkward fix this week; when I left Rome on Saturday, Mrs. Mackenzie and Alice Malleson had arranged to be in Florence on Wednesday, and I was to go straight to their rooms engaged for them by Mrs. Mackenzie’s niece, who lives with Miss Blagden. I came by Camucia and Sienna; they by sea, of which I have had enough, and shall have more. I got in at 8 on Monday evening, and got a room at the Hotel de York, a quiet place in the town, as the train came in too late to hunt up Miss Blagden. Tuesday I went to her, and found the room had not been taken. So Mr. Browning brought me back at night, telling me all sorts of interesting things of Florence Palaces by the way. Wednesday came, and no Mrs. Mackensie nor any letter! Thursday ditto! Friday ditto! Well, I couldn’t help it, but I durst not go near Aunt Anna! whom I felt sure would worry furiously, and make me come to her dreadful abode of penance! All my time I have been with Isa Blagden or Janie Hay– However, yesterday I felt I must go to Angelo; so I put on all my best clothes and got Miss Blagden to go with me to the Palace; and, by the most supreme good luck, he was in the country, and Aunt Anna too! So I am clear of them.
I have been delaying to write to you, hoping each day to be able to say Mrs. Mackensie was come and I had joined her at her hotel; however, long before you get this I shall be at Naples, with Luigi and his wife. Janie Hay talks of going to Naples at the same time; she has never been there, and Luigi takes care particularly to say that neither he nor his wife can go sightseeing.
My present idea is to get to Paris on the 30th of May, and for Emma to come on the 1st of June. Italy is getting too hot for sight seeing. The streets are burning at ten o’clock in the morning. Emma seems a little afraid of the journey, but she need not be, for the people at Boulogne speak English, and I will meet her in Paris. Will you try and persuade her of this? If she sleeps at Savile Row she can come straight through these summer days—and I don’t know when she will get such an opportunity again, as it costs me very little extra to stay in Paris to show it her.
I think Florence very pretty and charming, but a mere nothing compared to Rome, in everything but pictures, and there I think Florence has the advantage. For I think Giotti a greater man than Raphael, for which I suppose Mrs. Jameson would beat me about the ears. Also the Fra Angelicos here are enchanting.
I do not care about the Pitti Collection, but very much about the Uffizi; this morning Janie Hay meets me at the Academy, where I expect very great delight. I dine afterwards with Miss Blagden, up at Bellosguardo. Janie Hay was much pleased with your affect. remembrance of her. She is prettier than ever and succeeding very well in art, having commissions for original pictures, but her way of life seems to me too unprotected for the sort of person she is. Hatty Hosmer or Anna Mary Howith have a sort of foundation of character which Janie wants. Little Ernest grows well and is a nice little boy, the baby is at nurse, out of Florence; you may remember it was born after her arrival here, at first.
How cheap living in Florence is; Isa Blagden has such handsome rooms in a villa high up above Florence, with the most lovely prospect in the world, the use of a carriage by the month, & every comfort in life for £250 a year. The country is becoming enchantingly beautiful, but only fit to lounge about in, or sit in shady rooms. I shall go to Naples on Monday or Tuesday, stopping at Pisa on the way to see the Campo Santo again, and Mr. and Mrs. Spence who are settled there. Such nice kind people they were. I hear to-day, from Isa, since beginning this letter, that Mrs. Mackensie appears on Monday. However, I think she, or rather, Alice Malleson should have made some indication of non arrival before.
Florence certainly <…>, I hardly liked it at first, missing the stillness and sublimity of Rome, while it wants the intellectual vivacity of London and Paris. This 2 months in Italy has given me a very strong taste for the country. When I get back I shall have been away nearly 6 months. Rather over 9 weeks in Algiers and 9 weeks in Italy, the rest en route. I am afraid you will think I have been shabbier here than in Africa with my letters, but I led there a very regular family life, and there were not many sights to see; while ever since I came to Italy I have been in a perfect whirl of public places and new people, added to which I have almost invariably dined out, which has taken all my evenings and only left me a little bit of the morning after breakfast for letters and journal. I shall be very much obliged if you will do something for me. I have been rather put out by Sissy not writing to say whether she would certainly come to Paris or not, because I cannot authorise Anna to get rooms at Mad. Lecomte’s. However, I have told her that if she will come I will meet her the 1st of June—will you please to learn if she will, and then write to Anna for 2 little bedrooms or one doublebedded—I don’t mind which with Sissy. All the homegossip you send interests me exceedingly, but I have had no Waverleys and no Leaders since I don’t know when. I hope Cousin Elizabeth is with you when you get this, and I shall be coming back very soon now. Believe me, ever, my dearest Mother, with love to my Father, your very affectionate daughter,
Bessie R.Parkes.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Girton College.
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