SD2814. John Forster to Robert Bulwer Lytton

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 345 (in part).

Palace Gate House.

5th February 1866

… Your Father (looking uncommonly well) and your cousin Henry dined here last night, & were very pleasant. I had Fonblanque & Browning to meet them. … Talking of which let me mention that Frederic Chapman (assisted by his wife’s father) is about to buy out the elder Chapman, and to conduct the business alone:— … F.C. has lost a little boy lately, [1] and is likely (I much fear) to lose his good little wife very soon: [2] which I shall very greatly regret—for she is an amiable nice little person. …

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Lord Cobbold.

1. Arthur T. Chapman died on 7 January 1866 at Bournemouth, within the first year of his life, perhaps soon after birth. He was the Chapman's second child.

2. Clara Chapman (née Woodin, 1842–1866) died at Bournemouth, 28 February 1866, aged 23.

___________________