SD2287. Sarianna Browning to William Allingham
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 363 (in part).
Dieppe
Sept. 13th [1859]
My dear Mr Allingham,
Your letter followed me to Dieppe, whither we had gone to take refuge from the murderous heat of Paris: at first we tried Versailles, but after staying there a month, returned home more thoroughly baked than when we went away—then we came down here (just waiting meanwhile for the feu d’artifice, having a weakness for fireworks,) and now our pleasant sojourn being ended, we are going in a few days back to Paris there to settle down to our usual quiet life. I hope that very soon you will be passing our way, and will not forget us. So much for our own doings: those of my brother and his wife are not altogether so satisfactory– They passed, as I believe I told you, a most agreable winter and spring in Rome, every body agreed with one accord that my sister had never been seen looking so well or in such spirits. They returned to Florence in June, stayed there too long, being unable to tear themselves away from a place where they could get two bulletins of the war a day,—then after the over-excitement, came the bitter disappointment of the unexpected peace, and my sister fell suddenly ill with an attack on the lungs; more seriously ill, I fear, than she is willing to confess to me. She told me that Robert sat up every night with her for a fortnight. Now, thank God, she is better, and they are gone to Siena where they have taken a villa for two months. The mountain air, I trust, will recover her. She still thinks, and in this Robert agrees with her, that the Emperor has done immense good to Italy, and if he could follow out his own inclinations would do still more. The Tuscans have behaved with a moderation and self-restraint which one would scarcely have expected from them.
I have not much to tell you of Gustave Doré. Report says that he began life very poor, struggled bravely, and is now rich. At first he worked hard for cheap illustrated journals, children’s books, and such like, then a picture of his in the Paris exhibition attracted much attention; shortly after, he was employed to illustrate an entire work, the contes dro’latres of Balzac, then came his Rabelais—(I have not seen either of these works, but am told they are very fine,) afterwards his celebrated Juif Errant– He must be still young—he began to be known about the year 1850. Most likely the dictionary of Valpereau contains an article on him, but I have not access to the work. By the bye, I will show you what I consider the only good portrait of my sister that I have ever seen, if you will come to see us. I have not read yet Tennyson’s Idylls. Paris is much behind Ballyshannon, I assure you, but I was sorry to hear him swelling the war cry, which only keeps up unnecessary irritation. I don’t believe Napoleon wishes to attack us– It is right for England to guard her coast,—but my national pride has been mortified by the way in which we have been screaming out our terror in the face of Europe. I hope however, that the panic is subsiding. My fathers kind regards, and believe me
Most truly yrs,
Sarianna Browning.
Publication: Letters to William Allingham, ed. H. Allingham and E. Baumer Williams (London, 1911), pp. 115–117, (as 13 September [1860]).
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
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