SD589. Henrietta Moulton-Barrett to Septimus Moulton-Barrett

Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 346 (in part).

Hope End

Feb. 11th 1827.

Five years, five very happy ago, when my heart was not too young to love, or too insensible to feel the love of those so dear to me, upon whose smiles or frowns depended each hour whether I might rejoice or weep in it,—before these very happy years had come, how many golden links of affection prolonged my chain of bliss! I love & I was loved—it was all I wished, & all I prayed for!

But I have seen a happier day if possible than one of those, when first I looked upon my seventh brother,—for even then I cherished him, but when his goodness & his virtues of riper years shot forth like rose buds in Decber, & when I hear his infant accents telling me “I love you“!– It is enough, my feelings rest my own.

My prayer is this, that, like the rose bud, he may be protected from the frosts of life, & that his sweetness may expand to perfect bloom by the growing sun of virtue, which has hitherto watched over him.

His fondly attached Henrietta.

Address, on integral page: To / Master Septimus Barrett.

Publication: Marks, p. 322 (in part).

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

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