SD346. Edward Moulton-Barrett (father) to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 322 (in part).
London
July 1– [1820]
My own dear Daddles
I must write one line, if only to ask how do you do? I to[o] commend you for getting some little better according to Mama’s account to-day, yet as I am a nervous Body, I must insist upon an almost immediate recovery, or woe bitide you. I am really most anxious to be with you to pass an Evening in the snug retreat in the garden up to our Elbows in paste and our Throats in Cakes– I have seen nothing in London entertaining and heard nothing to be relied on; The Dark Ages seem again to have returned to our Portion of the Earth; Would I had been born in China, there a Man who has made up his mind to live two or three thousand years as I have, may calculate on as much enjoyment & Knowledge at the end of that Period as at the commencement, for indeed I believe it is a common saying amongst the Chinese, as it was before the beginning is now and ever shall be, whereas here what We know to-day We forget to–morrow, and after a time We begin to acquire everything again; For my part I feel every disposition to play with Marbles again, therefore tell Stormy to take care of some of the best for me– Bro gets a little better but his Cough is a most tiresome one, and is much too slow for my small stock of Patience– Mr McSwiney has had an application to go to a Gentleman in Somersetshire as a Tutor and among the many Queries put to him it is asked whether he is of a uniformly mild Temper which I have advised him to answer in the Affirmative with the remark, that he is peculiarly so, except when made angry, and then he will not answer for the consequences–
Tell John Lever or Mr Bouker for me that all the Hands that were on the Clover must fall to cut the Grass, as I am determined to have it all down immediately–
Ba & Stormy’s letters have just been sent us to read– Tell my Boy I am delighted with his and is so capitaly done, that Sam had better taken Physic; Sam must have guessed what he meant in telling him the Latin for Bull and Cows, and himself have supplied the deficiency in the Family by exclaiming Oh esto procul Caput Vitulinum– What a [illegible word] Rascal the Fellow is– Good bye my dearest Daddles, with love and affections to all, whom my Love holds most dear– I am, ever your dear Puppy
EMB–
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Altham Archive.
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