SD567. Angela Bayford to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 342 (in part).
Chelsea.
Nov. 16. 1826.
My dearest Henrietta;
According to the most approved methods of letter-writing, I ought to commence this epistle with many expressions of contrition for my past mis-conduct in delaying so long to return an answer to your last letter, & many promises of better behaviour in future. But the fact is; tho’ I doubt not that I should be able to frame some very plausible excuses for the past, my conscience will not allow me to make any promises for the time to come, well-judging of my inability to keep them from what has hitherto been my conduct. I must therefore, only beg that you will vouchsafe a kindly welcome to this sheet, even should it contain very little that may deserve one.
You have heard of the pleasant visit Julia, & I have been paying to our Friends the Saunders, at Norwood. We spent several weeks there most delightfully, and were summoned home rather sooner than we otherwise should have been to welcome the return of our dear Papa. Most joyfully did we obey the summons, and I need not tell you how great was our happiness at being again united under the same roof with our beloved Parent. I trust that we were none of us unmindful of the Hand that had bestowed this blessing, but all our hearts were lifted up in fervent gratitude to Him, thro’ whose merciful providence we enjoyed such happiness.
You will be sorry to hear that Papa has not been at all well lately; & it is more than a fortnight since he was last able to give his accustomed attendance at Doctors Commons; he is, however, much better today, & is now taking a few turns in the garden with Mama. We are all quite delighted with the great improvement that has taken place in Sam. He paid us a visit the other morning accompanied by Miss Tripsack, & we thought him much grown, & looking remarkably well. As we were informed of Mrs Moulton’s intended return to Hastings, Mama was very anxious that some of us, should call at York-Street before her departure, Emily, being a very good walker, had settled to go, but a bad cold having rendered it impossible, I and Augustus went to represent the rest of the family. We thought your Grandmama looking very well, tho’ she complained very much of her cough. We heard how very nearly we were honored with a visit from our old acquaintance James Trant, we should have been very happy to have seen him at Chelsea had he ventured to favor us with a call.
Albert Heseltine has been staying with us a few days, he is only just returned from the West-Indies[.] He is a nice, good natured Boy, full of fun, & amuses us not a little by his frequent introduction, of sea-phrases in every thing he says. He has taken great pains to explain the meaning of these terms, & we have profited so much by his instruction that many parts of that pretty little Poem Fawlkner’s Ship-wreck, which Ba in her kindness gave to Emily, are now elucidated, to our no small gratification. I wish you had been in Town, when the King’s Pictures were exhibited at the British Gallery. You would have been quite delighted with the collection[.] There was one picture there, which surpassed every thing, we any of us ever saw. It is executed by a modern artist, and was bought expressly for the King a fe<w y>ears ago at Rome. The subject is the interior of a Convent, the monks were represented at their devotions, and all the figures were done most beautifully. But the exact representation of the light shining thro’ the canvass blinds of the windows, was really most wonderful. The effect was altogether so exquisite, that it was hardly possible to imagine it was a painting, & not a reality on which we were gazing. From whatever point of view the picture was beheld, the effect produced was equally astonishing. I was so much enchanted, that I persuaded Mama to take me a second time to the British Gallery and the pleasure I derived from my first visit there, was equally great on the second. My aunt has just returned to her House at Chelsea, from some visits she has been making to some friends at East-Borne & Lewes. She looks very well, & is as blooming, and agreeable as ever. I am charged with a long message from Emily to Ba, the purport of which is to beg her to write immediately an account of all she has been doing, & saying during her late absence from Hope-End; she expects to derive much entertainment from it. With kindest love to all your dear party
Believe me, my dearest Henrietta’s
Most affectionate cousin
Angela J. Bayford.
We have heard a very sad account of Bro, but we hope he is now better.
I hardly feel justified in begging you, my dearest Henrietta, to write again as soon as possible; I have been so very negligent in replying to your last, that it will only be thro your great & unmerited kindness if I ever receive another line from Hope-End. But pray exert your clemency & write the next convenient opportunity, in order that I may be able to show <by> my future good behaviour that I a<m> not of the number of those who own <their> faults, but never mend.
Address, on integral page: Miss Henrietta Barrett / Hope-End / near Ledbury / Herefordshire.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Altham Archive.
___________________
