SD2602. Robert Bulwer Lytton to John Forster

Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 352 (in part).

Vienna

24 Sep [1862]

… I am very grateful for your news of Browning. I have not heard from him for an age. Tis my fault for I ought to have written to him. But I am almost incapable of writing letters and ashamed of the poor attempts in the way which I make with my dearest friends & which only belie; instead of interpreting my heart. So I give up the effort. He is seldom out of my thoughts however & I love & venerate him in the deepest depth of my heart. Mill passed thro’ Vienna while I was at Belgrave & thus I missed him. … What a state of things in America! I daren’t go near Motley. Poor fellow I feel for him deeply. I see that an old friend, or not quite that, but friendly acquaintance of mine, Fletcher Webster [2] (the great man’s son) is among the last Victims. My sympathies, so far as I can screw any out of me, have certainly been with the North. …

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Lord Cobbold.

2. Fletcher Webster (1813-1862).

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