SD2660. Lady Westmorland to Julian Fane

Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 364–365 (in part).

London

November 1863.

Rose went with Lady de Grey to Dr. Stanley’s marriage. …

Rose tells me she wrote you an account yesterday of Miss Bateman. I am surprised never to have seen or heard anything of her extraordinary classical beauty. Every one of her attitudes would make the most beautiful statue, and every expression of her face the most charming picture. Mr. Browning told us last night that he had heard Fanny Kemble speak of her and say that she did not think her an actress, but that when she came home from seeing her she had “thanked God for having made anything so beautiful.” It is very odd that none of the artists I spoke to about her had seen her. She has not the received tragic face (Siddonian); for she is fair, with an immense quantity of fair, waving hair, and a small nose and mouth, with a wide large forehead.

Text: Rachel Weigall, Lady Rose Weigall (London, 1923), pp. 128–129.

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