SD2086. Frederick Tennyson to Mary Brotherton
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 263–264 (in part).
Pisa
June 4th /57. [1]
My dear Mrs Brotherton,
Your last letter was so sad, that I had no heart to reply to it immediately & thought it better to let Time have its effect upon you before venturing upon an answer to it. I sincerely hope that by this time you will have been restored to a tranquil state of mind– It is some four months now since the date of your last letter, & since then we have finally left Florence, & taken upon our abode at the City of the Dead, which however enables me to live with much more satisfaction to myself than the irritating atmosphere of Florence, which rasped the nerves like a file. Pisa too has many beauties which do not belong to its neighbour, such as pinewoods extending to the sea, vast park like pastures, a far more respectable river, and the sea itself within 5 or 6 miles, backed by the grand serrated crests of the Pavia line of mountains—all which elements of grandeur brought together, make an ensemble which I prefer to the varied uplands of Florence– Miss Blagden flourishes at the Villa Brichieri which we occupied for six months after leaving the Torrigiani gardens. I saw her a few weeks ago living with a friend of hers a Miss Brac<ken.> Poor Mrs Browning has just lost her father under very disheartening circumstances, they had never been friends since her marriage, & he died suddenly leaving the void still unbridged over in time, & leaving her delicate nature more afflicted by his unforgiveness than if he had lovingly departed in the gradual decline of nature– He was decidedly a bad man, I think, to be set against such a pearl of a daughter as poor little E.B.B. who before her marriage with Browning (whom I for one think a very superior sort of gentleman as well as a man of genius) was the lamp of her home, & did more for her family in many ways than any one of them– With what spirit & understanding do such men as Mr Barrett say the Lord’s prayer if they ever do so? I have had no opportunity yet of seeing your book, which I have so much wished to meet with—but am determined to order it out– Have you got anything new upon the stocks in the same line?
In your last letter you mentioned that you were about to forsake Hemus Terra<ce> (by the by what an Hyperborean designation reminding one of some icehouse on a Caucasian glacier looking over illimitable windy plains<)> & it uncertain—if indeed you have already moved, whether you will ever get this [illegible word] <***>
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Immediately under the date, Mary Brotherton has written “I had lost my mother recently.”
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