SD550. Mary Moulton-Barrett to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 339 (in part).
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April 11th [1826] [1]
My own darling Hentta
After answering dear little Tom’s letter from Brussels, some of this day’s holiday must be given to you, to thank you for your sweet letter franked the 4th which gladdened all our hearts by the report of you, dear Mrs M. & your pleasures & enjoyments. Ungrateful indeed should I be, not deeply to feel all the value you express for my dull letters my dearest Child it is a stimulus more potent than flattery itself, to scribble whenever I can, for which you have a security, in the happiness I feel in this only means of communicating with you. How little did I think when I saw you drive away in Mary’s barouche, that I was not to see those dear faces again for 10 long months. They are indeed gone, & yet no certain means arranged for your return! but indeed this must be thought of. How anxiously do I hope dear Mary may find health & strength at Tunbridge. The distance from you is so short, that we think you will see them. Delighted indeed are we that dear Granny was equal to enjoying your pleasant party. The “tender Doctor” & your April hoax amused us much. Need I say, dearest Hentta that all your amusement is as gratifying to us as if it were our own! I trust now that all the winter storms are really over, & that we shall have no returns of cough to apprehend for that dear kind Granny of yours. Dear Grandmamma has I fear been suffering a good deal, from the shaking hand in which her letter of yesterday was written from her cough—she has had Dr. Ramsay, but she assures me that she is better, in proof of which she was to have a large dinner party the next day. I always dread this season for her—her wish to gratify Bell, will I think take them to London, but not till the cold winds quite subside. She says the poem has caused quite a sensation in the North—nearly 50 copies were sold in NC & more ordered. Dr. Ramsay, who is a very clever man, said that he considered it so extraordinary a production that he did not doubt its being reviewed—that he should have some conversation about it with Mr Loth who is one of the illuminati of the North, & well acquainted with the learned in Edingh—Mr Daniell was spreading its fame in Durham, that County which is bound to take a lively interest, seeing that the authoress drew her first breath there. My mother had sent a copy into Scotland to Mrs Waldie, a person highly qualified to appreciate it, & having known me from my birth, & having many literary friends, my mother thought it might be the means of introducing it favourably into Scotland, & therefore made this one exception to her rule of never lending or giving it. I trust a great deal will be done there for the loved authoress’s fame & pocket, for however base & low the latter may be in competition with the former, it is not to be despised. After Church on Sunday, a shower of rain induced us to accept the shelter of Mr Hockin’s room, where he said with some pique, that he had heard for the first time of the poem at Mr Dean’s dinner & that he should certainly purchase it immediately, particularly as Papa had bought his sermon—this is really overwhelming, in addition to the basin of clotted cream last week, & the assurance that whenever we have a few friends unacquainted with that delicacy, that we have only to let him know a few days before & he will prepare it with Miss Tremlett’s assistance. I do envy you the sight of Dr Batty’s beautiful drawings, & wish he would lend you one to copy, tho’ I suppose it could scarcely be asked, prints are engraved from many of them: he has an accurate knowledge of music too, & is altogether a man of such good taste, that I entirely depend not only on his purchasing, but also on his greatly admiring our precious Essay. Hentta Farrer writes in wonder of it. No one, she says, would believe it to be the work of a female, much less, so young a one. How rejoiced we are to hear dearest Sam, is in another form! Would that we had similar good news of Bro—I am every day more anxious about those dear boys, as time advances when they must be more actively occupied & how? that is the question! Sweet Octavius is crowned today (his birthday) with a garland of real roses, not so sweet as himself, & inexpressibly proud of his “own booful chair.” A large gingerbread cake & flowers adorned the breakfast table, Minny’s handy work in honor of her darling. They have been out all day, the poor ass had the task of taking the whole party in your little carriage to Mrs Barkers—by the bye Papa has kindly expressed some serious intention of having it altered, to be drawn by a poney, at our pleasure—Matthews he thinks may do it, & I trust it will be done, he is quite settled with his family in Ledbury. A Letter from J. Whinegates gives an acct. of her Brother’s meeting in Corfu, Lord B’s [“]Maid of Athens,” very classical figure & face, & most respectable person, tho’ poor, since her Fathers death who was Consul at Athens. The memorable Boulogne party, cost £3.10 bread & butter inclusive the sitting room 23 feet long.
Mrs Deffell tells me she is in some respects better, in others worse since I saw her. She can walk very little, her complaint is a chronic inflammation of the stomach & bowels, producing every three of four weeks frightful spasms in the intervals she is tolerably well. She gives a most distressing account of poor Robert Scarlett who is in a state of hopeless decline & general decay, not consumption of the lungs, his melancholy is so profound that he cannot bear to be either talked to or read to. His doating Parent is distracted with her grief, her hopes and fears changing with every shadow of change in him. She has been since Oct 4 times on the point of taking her passage to Jamaica or Madeira, moving from Kew, to Brighton, Abinger, Burton Crescent, (to be near Dr. Roget), then to Worthing, Brompton Crescent, & now to Abinger again. Mr Deffell is getting all the information he can of India ships touching at Madeira. All her hopes resting on a Sea Voyage which all know to be in vain, but none can tell her so. God help & comfort her! Mrs D. sees much of her & has indeed been a kind & steady friend. The young Robt. Scarlett, lives with his Father, a cheap & pleasant plan but after the birth of the 2nd child expected soon it is feared they will wish to move. Mrs Campbell & her lovely children quite well. They all have the poem. Mrs D says it has been her amusement & study however incapable she may be of judging of a literary work, nature & the feelings of the heart she can appreciate as well as the learned, therefore she is delighted with the Essay, tho’ the subject be dry & deep—“it exhibits in its pages the purity, the piety of the Author’s mind. Extensive reading & the power of carefully separating, as she proceeds in the study of dangerous writers, the tares from the wheat, it seems to me a wonderful production.” She begs that you & Ba will not omit to let them see you as you go thro’ London, her girls are well, & both the eldest sons are in the Counting House. The sweet briars are quite out, & every thing in blossom excepting the pear trees with an excellent promise of abundant fruits—the forest trees are still in their winter nakedness. Daly has condescended to put the flower garden in beautiful order sowing seeds &c, but declaring that if the peacocks appear there, they may bring their coffins with them. The crown imperials & hyacinths are in blow; the partnership gardens are in grand preparation. Minny & all hard at work. Seppy moves every plant in his garden two or three times a week, so that nothing remains but one immortal primrose. Georgy has taken possession of one of Ba’s curved beds, & is doing more for it, than ever the proprietor would. F. Bayford tells me there is a plan in agitation that the two youngest children with a trusty maid, should meet their Father shortly at Boulogne that he may judge how far it is likely to suit them all, & begs a letter of introduction to the Symons, which I have sent, tho’ the plan seemed so uncertain, that if you should write, do not mention it, it seems odd to me to send those children.
Here is Mr Wilkins tuning—the poor piano is sadly neglected in the Eveng tho I often have a solitary enjoyment in a little music—it will soon be warm enough to sit in the drawing room.
Addressed and franked by Samuel Moulton-Barrett (uncle) on integral page: Tunbridge Wells. April fifteen 1826 / Miss H. Barrett / Paragon / Hastings.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Year provided by the frank.
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