SD2914. Matthew Arnold to Mary Penrose Arnold
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 267 (in part).
The Athenæum
June 17, 1867
My dearest Mother
This week at any rate I am early in writing to you …
We had a very successful visit to Oxford … Flu and I dressed for Balliol. It was an immense party and we dined at the high table in hall. The Lingens were there and the Farrers and Lady Airlie and her daughter, and Arthur Peel the Member for Warwick (the late Sir Robert’s youngest son) and his wife (a Dugdale), and Browning, and others from London, besides Mrs Liddell and a great number of Oxford people. I was sent in first with Lady Airlie, and was altogether made a great deal of, which I always am in Oxford. Lady Airlie is very clever and very handsome—she is Lady Stanley of Alderley’s eldest daughter. … On Sunday … the same party as the night before, only Roundell the host and not Jowett. This time, to vary the assorting, Browning was sent in with Lady Airlie, and I with Mrs Arthur Peel. …
Publication: The Letters of Matthew Arnold, ed. Cecil Y. Lang (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1996–2001), 3, 150–152.
Manuscript: Balliol College.
___________________
