SD2731. Sarianna Browning to Joseph Milsand
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 310 (in part).
151, rue de Grenelle St Gn
Nov. 15. [1864] [1]
My dear Friend,
My heart feels for you in this sad trial—the worst of all suffering is to see those we love suffer, and to be powerless to help– But your dear mother is in God’s hands, and He loves her better than even you can do. How touching it is that in St John’s Vision of heaven the very first thing he sees, before all its splendour, is that God wipes away the tears from the faces of his saints, and tells them that there is now no more sorrow, nor death, nor pain—as if they carried the traces of their earthly tears even into the presence of God: they do not hide them from Him, but go to Him for comfort. May His strength and consolation be with you in this hour of trial!
Your book is very welcome to me– I am glad to perceive there is a preface, or introduction, to it– Very many thanks for it– Robt’s address is 19. Warwick Crescent, Harrow Road—or Upper Westbourne Terrace,—which you choose—the termination is variable, but Warwick Crescent is the root, and must not be changed. (You see the German grammar style is heavy on me.) He will be delighted to get it,—there is never a letter in which he does not enquire after you and your mother with the most affectionate solicitude. He is quite well. Pen had frightened him by a sort of spasm in the stomach caused by gulping down his breakfast in a violent hurry to go out afterwards. The doctor said it was nothing, but Robert was naturally alarmed at the moment– Pen is all right again. Robt said Leighton had returned from Florence, and told him he had set right the stupid conceit of the sculptor, and the work was going on, but Rt added that he knew nothing of what the expenses would be, or when it would be done. Yesterday I had two papers sent me by different friends, containing allusions to dearest Ba. One, in the “Star”, was the letter of their correspondent in Italy, describing a visit he or she (I fancy it is a woman) paid to the cemeteries at Florence on the jour des morts: at the end, the Protestant burying-ground, with its graves (Theodore Parker’s &c) are spoken of, and the writer says “I went lastly, but with reverent step, to the sod that covers the remains of the greatest woman poet the world has ever known. I thought that the splendid monument designed by Leighton for Mrs B.’s grave was completed, but found only the basement, which is of the finest Carrara marble inlaid with a scroll of black marble leaves–” the writer then speaks of her with evidently strong personal attachment. The other paper, the Standard, contained a review of Miss Cobbe’s new work, and quotes as the most sensible thing in it, some remarks she makes about the happiness of Ba’s marriage.
Miss Blackwell came here the other day,—she made me promise not to forget to give her love to you. The Corkrans are well: he is appointed to some place in some company connected with St Nazaire. The chairman is the same as the one of the European bank, and most of the directors—but I regret all this changing—as so does she, inwardly. I don’t think she wishes it to be known any more than she can help. The employment is still in London,—the hours of attendance less, and the pay the same. She had received a letter from Miss Htta Darley—in excellent spirits—she had been with Mrs Magee, and found her in better health than for years past. Good bye for the present, dearest Friend. I should write without standing upon turns if I had anything to communicate that could interest you—but I am rather out of the world, and hear few sayings and doings worth chronicling.
My father’s best remembrances—he is quite well.
Ever yrs. S.B.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Joseph Milsand Archive.
1. Year provided by reference to a letter that appeared in The Evening Star on 10 November 1864.
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