SD2928. Bryan Waller Procter to John Forster
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 374–375 (in part).
2 Oakhill Park
Hampstead
Middx
Wednesday Oct. 2 [1867] [1]
My dear Forster
By this time you are chatting very comfortably, I have no doubt, with the Man of Ross. …
My wife & Edith have been reading a novel, “Margaret’s Engagement”—the most memorable part of which appears to consist of an Old Lady having a favourite Cat, which she calls “Robert Browning.” This fact will tempt me into a perusal of this original work. I want to ascertain how the author of Sordello looks in his metempsychosis—(I can’t write or spell).
An Event occurred here the other day. The Revd. Mr. Kirkman—a Clergyman—called & wished to be introduced to “Mr. Cornwall.” Poor Mr. Cornwall, I thought he was defunct & forgotten long since. You will not be surprized that Mr. Kirkman was a good-natured man, not likely to set the Thames on fire. Yet he appears to have been a reader of verse. He told my wife when they met a day or two afterwards, that he had read and knew all Browning’s works, I did not hear what the name of his Cat was. …
Hoping that all goes well with you and Mrs. F., I am always your sincere croaking old friend
B.W. Procter
Publication: Richard Willard Armour, Barry Cornwall, a Biography of Bryan Waller Procter (Boston, 1935), pp. 321–323.
Manuscript: Victoria and Albert Museum.
1. Year provided by the publication date (1867) of Margaret’s Engagement by Catherine Simpson Wynne.
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