SD2722. Sarianna Browning to Joseph Milsand

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 308–309.

[Biarritz]

[mid-September 1864] [1]

<***> nearly drowned,—but there is a strong array of baigneurs and coast-guards, and every care taken to prevent accidents. There are three large beaches, and three large bathing establishments. The place is a little too rattling for my taste, but the predominance of the Basque and Spanish races pleases and interests me—the gay dresses of the latter are like the romances of my childhood. The weather is warm,—and the land-wind, (from Spain,) oppressively

<…>

<com>fortable,—a large dining room, and a salon facing the sea—the mountains of Spain distinctly visible, to the left.

Robert bids me tell you that with his pen he has done very little work, but a great deal with his brain—he has completed, in his head, the arrangement of his poem in twelve books, and hopes to bring it out by this time next year. He reads a great deal of Greek, and bathes in the sea every morning—he thought the Standard reviewer would amuse you—he is certainly a genius in his way. <***>

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Joseph Milsand Archive.

1. Date suggested by the descriptions of Biarritz, where the Brownings stayed from 13 September to 7 October 1864.

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