SD720. Samuel Moulton-Barrett (brother) to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 366–367 (in part).
[London]
April. 16th—1830–
My ever dearest Henrietta
I heard a knock at the door yesterday and I was just going to say we were not at home, for dinner was coming up & Mr Curzon & Doctor Nuttall were to dine here, when who should appear on the door being opened but Henery Trant, who arrived by the Mail in the Morning, & was going to set off again by the coach this Morning, but he put it off untill tonight, he staid & dined, and went with us to hear Mr Curzon preach at Blandford Street Chapel, for the Miss[i]onary Society; we had a very good sermon, but I am afraid he collected very little, for very few people were there, he says he is afraid he shall not be able to get home again untill the thirtieth of this month, he has to preach in so many places, his father arrived at 67 in this street, Gran[n]ys old house, the day before yesterday; Henery Trant drank Tea here, & gave a very good account of you all, & said you were all very good children, I am glad you behave yourselves so well; he came again this morning & is just gone out with Papa to see the Zoological Gardens, he dines with us; I send by him my dictionary for Ba, as we have not had time to get a new one, but tell her not to be affronted for it is nearly new; I also send Cicero’s Orations for Stormy; as I have got a large Edition, it is of no use to me therefore it is no compliment. Tell Ba that my Memoria Technica is something in the same plan as Mr Boyds, but instead of Church Steeples, I make use of the room in which I am, & divide it into a certain number of squares, & place whatever I wish to remember in a particular square & as all the squares have numbers in them, I look into such & such squares for such & such circumstances, & can at any time call these circumstances to my mind, by merely looking, mentally, into those Squares, in which I know they are placed; but I think Mr Boyds plan as good as any, for I suppose he remembers the height of the steeples by words, for I can by Mr Crookes plan change any number into a word or sentence, or any word or sentence into a number, so that I can remember dates distances &c by any word or sentence I choose to change that date or distance into; as for instance the circumference of the globe in square miles, & the population in the world in numbers; is in square 198,942,808 miles & the populations is 893,000,000 of people, now this would be desperate hard to remember, but changing it into a sentence & placing that sentence into a square it becomes quite easy, “Be virtuous for we are; Earthy” the first part is the circumference in square miles, & after the cemicolon [sic] is the population; & in the same manner you can turn any numbers into words, the vowels do not count; I shall not attempt to explain the whole of his system on paper for it would take nearly a whole ream of foolscap, so I shall begg leave to drop the subject for the present; but I advise you not to insult me by laughing at it, for if you do, you shall never hear to last of it. I went last week with the Sterling<s> to see the wild beasts fed, at the King’s Mews; the first person I saw was Monies old Walthanastow groom, who is turned one of the Beef Eaters, Bro knows him very well, he has been in that situation for nine months, we then went in & saw Lions, Tygers & every description of animals, I saw an Elephant Walk out of his den, & ring the bell for his dinner, which was served up immediately, I then went to look at the Monkeys, & I saw a face I thought I had seen before, & when I thought of all the handsome faces I had ever seen, I found out it was Mr Henery Barrett of Hope End, & tell him I do not flatter him when I say it was the handsomest Monkey I ever saw, & the most striking likeness I ever saw, it sat upon a chair, smoked a pipe & drank it’s Grog, & if it had not been in London I really should have thought it was the above Honorable Gentleman, I gave it a nut and a cake for old acquaintance sake. I had a walk the other morning with John Sterling at six Oclock, in the country & just got home in time for Breakfast, Mrs Sterling is still dangerously ill she has got a Dr Clark who gives no hopes of her recovery, she gets worse every day we were there yesterday & she could not see Treppy. I do not give you an account of Gran[n]ys health as Treppy is writing to Ba, but I think she is certainly stronger, & if she still gets better & the weather finer she has hope of getting down next morn[.] I am going with Treppy to a Ball next Wednesday, & I expect that a great number of people will be there—it is Mrs Owens who I have mentioned before. We heard from Monies a day or two ago, they are both quite well & at Cinnamon Hill[.] I write to them this Packet. Many thanks to you & dearest Ba for your letter, & I hope it will not be long before you honour me again. With best love to all your party I remain
your ever affectionate
Sam.
I recommend Bro to take a glass of Peppermint water for his hysterics.
Address, on integral page: Miss H Barrett / Hope End / Ledbury / Herefordshire.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Altham Archive.
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