SD403. Samuel Moulton-Barrett (uncle) to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 329 (in part).
[Gloucester]
[ca. September] [?1821]
My dearest Addles.
To be entreated to write to a young lady of your personal attractions (& I may add, mental) is too flattering, not instantly to be complied with. I did not however require this invitation, for having the reward of an answer, I should from a principle of selfishness have done it without. My visit to Hope End at this Season of the year is not so practicable as it was a few weeks past, for so dirty are the roads, & so great an enemy is mud to modish breeches, & a fashionable bearer, that I fear the injury of both– In spite however of these capital, & fundamental objections I will with Mr Wyatts’s assistance of a beast, get over to you before very long to see how the Shrubberies, Weeds, & children have waned– From your letters I can judge of your mental growth, If your bodily increase keeps pace with it, I shall expect to see your head towering amongst the clouds, like Jacks beans– I mean to send tomorrow in a parcel directed to you, [illegible word] for Mrs Orme, & two lockets for yourself & Arabella, the latter contain a capital proof of Ba’s recollection of you, by way of stimulating your recollection of her. If not of the most fashionable manufacture, or of the most choice ornaments, you will feel great indifference about the exterior in consideration of the interior, This induced me to look about for something very plain, Ba feasted last night on a second edition of wedding cake, which was universally admitted to be much better than that from Newcastle, Do you therefore when advised to give your hand to Sir Dicky Canary get your groundsel & hemp seed from Gloucester, & take care to send me a quantity, for like Mrs Malaprop, I own the soft impeachment, I doat upon Gloucester wedding Cake. I suspect too that our wedding here was set to a merrier tune than your wedding there, for the Lady was in high Spirits, the Mother very cheerful, & the Bridegroom besides himself with delight– When I marry, I mean to go to Newcastle, for as I detest innovations of any kind however much they may be an improvement upon old customs, I am determined to have a good cry at the beginning, knowing full well, that to that I must come at last– Our Canary improves daily, in mind I wont say, for I am not quite decided <wh>ether our Canary has a mind, whatever <***>
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Altham Archive.
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