SD2475. Elizabeth Romagnoli to Sophia Eckley
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 296.
[Florence]
July 13th 1861.
Dear Mrs Eckley,
It is with feelings of the deepest sorrow that I write to you of the death of dear Mrs Browning, which was, I am happy to say with God’s Blessing, with little pain, indeed the last moments, from what I hear from Mr Browning & Annunziata must have been most happy. Her last words was Blessing him & saying beautiful. This Saturday, 8 days before her death, after dinner she felt more than usual unwell, and went to bed, from which she never rose again alive, but in that time she suffered little except from the difficulty in breathing. I saw her the evening before, she washed and had her hair done, & really except for her bidding me good night in a more imperative & more affecate manner which made me think she felt more than she said, still there seemed nothing that evening to cause me to think the Last was so near & I must say it was a great shock to me when my husband told me in the morning she was no more. Dear Mrs Eckley, you and all who love her will be happy to hear her death was so calm, & we may all rest assured she was prepared for such a change at any moment. It is a great void to me. I know you will feel it much & I hope you will accept my deepest sympathy & most sincere regards from
yours truly
E. Romagnoli
Mr Browning & dearest Penini who is so good, leaves for England soon.
Wilson Mrs Browning English maid–
Publication: Scott Lewis, “Elizabeth Wilson: a Biographical Sketch,” Browning Society Notes, 23, (December 1996), 86 (facsimile, 85–86).
Source: Transcript in editors’ file.
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