Mrs. Sutherland-Orr had access to these letters for her biography of Robert Browning, and quotes several passages from them. With this exception, none of the letters have been published previously; and the published letters of Miss Barrett to Mr. R.H. Horne have not been drawn upon, except for biographical information.

See Notes and Queries for July 20, 1889, supplemented by a note from Mr. Browning himself in the same paper on August 24.

These estates still remain in the family, and Mr. Charles Barrett, the eldest surviving brother of Mrs. Browning, now lives there.

R.H. Horne, Letters of E.B. Browning, i. 158-161.

R.H. Horne, Letters of E.B. Browning, i. 164.

Dict. of Nat. Biography, vii. 78.

Mrs. Browning usually spells such words as 'favour,' 'honour,' and the like, without the u, after the fashion which one is accustomed to regard as American.

Octavius, her youngest brother.

Hugh Stuart Boyd, the blind scholar whose friendship with Elizabeth Barrett is commemorated in her poem, 'Wine of Cyprus,' and in three sonnets expressly addressed to him. He was at this time living at Great Malvern, where Miss Barrett frequently visited him, reading and discussing Greek literature with him, especially the works of the Greek Christian Fathers. But to call him her tutor, as has more than once been done, is a mistake: see Miss Barrett's letter to; him of March 3, 1845. Her knowledge of Greek was due to her volunteering to share her brother Edward's work under his tutor, Mr. MacSwiney.

Mr. Ingram, in his Life of E.B. Browning ('Eminent Women' Series) connects this fact with the abolition of colonial slavery, and a consequent decrease in Mr. Barrett's income; but since the abolition only took place in 1833, while Hope End was given up in the preceding year, this conclusion does not appear to be certain.

The Martins' home near Malvern, about a mile from Hope End.

Her brothers Edward and Septimus.

Archbishop Whately.

The New Monthly Magazine, at this time edited by Bulwer, afterwards the first Lord Lytton.

Letters to R.H. Home, i. 162.

It need hardly be said that the literary resurrectionist has been too much for her, and the version of 1833 has recently been reprinted. Of this reprint the best that can be said is that it provides an occasion for an essay by Mrs. Meynell.

Athenaeum, June 8, 1833.

Alfred, the fifth brother.

The Fathers not Papists, including a reprint of some translations from the Greek Fathers, which Mr. Boyd had published previously.

Poetical Works, ii. 3.

Ib. i. 277.

Miss Barrett's Greek is habitually written without accents or breathings.

Poetical Works, ii. 278.

An allusion to the first line of 'The Poet's Vow.'

The 'Seraphim,' published in 1838.

The bodkin seems to be a favourite weapon with ancient dames whose genius was for killing (note by E.B.B.).

A reference to Pindar, Pyth.i. 9.

These verses are inclosed with the foregoing letter, as a retort to Mr. Boyd's parody.

Elizabeth Barrett's 'pet name' (see her poem, Poetical Works, ii. 249), given to her as a child by her brother Edward, and used by her family and friends, and by herself in her letters to them, throughout her life.

Do you mind that deed of Até
Which you bound me to so fast,—
Reading 'De Virginitate,'
From the first line to the last?
How I said at ending solemn,
As I turned and looked at you,
That Saint Simeon on the column
Had had somewhat less to do?

'Wine of Cyprus' (Poetical Works, iii. 139)

As a matter of fact, 'The Seraphim' was not printed in the New Monthly, being probably thought too long.

Serjeant Talfourd.

Poetical Works, ii. 248.

Poetical Works, ii. 83.

Poems, for the most part occasional, by John Kenyon.

John Kenyon (1784-1856) was born in Jamaica, the son of a wealthy West Indian landowner, but came to England while quite a boy, and was a conspicuous figure in literary society during the second quarter of the century. He published some volumes of minor verse, but is best known for his friendships with many literary men and women, and for his boundless generosity and kindliness to all with whom he was brought into contact. Crabb Robinson described him as a man 'whose life is spent in making people happy.' He was a distant cousin of Miss Barrett, and a friend of Robert Browning, who dedicated to him his volume of 'Dramatic Romances,' besides writing and sending to him 'Andrea del Sarto' as a substitute for a print of the painter's portrait which he had been unable to find. The best account of Kenyon is to be found in Mrs. Crosse's 'John Kenyon and his Friends' (in Red-Letter Days of My Life, vol. i.).

Poetical Works, ii. 40.

'The Romaunt of the Page.'

July 7, 1838.

June 24, 1838.

June 23, 1838.

September 1840.

This was written about the end of 1851.

Probably John Kenyon, whom Miss Mitford elsewhere calls 'the pleasantest man in London;' he, on his side, said of Miss Mitford that 'she was better and stronger than any of her books.'

Nineteen years, Miss Mitford having been born in 1787.

Recollections of a Literary Life, by Mary Russell Mitford, p. 155 (1859).

i.e. copies of the Essay on Mind.

This is an error. Mr. Chorley was not editor of the Athenaeum, though he was one of its principal contributors.

Andrew Crosse, the electrician, who had recently published his observations of a remarkable development of insect life in connection with certain electrical experiments—a discovery which caused much controversy at the time, on account of its supposed bearings on the origin of life and the doctrine of creation.

Altered in later editions to 'satisfies.'

In later editions 'not' is repeated instead of 'nor,' which looks like a compromise between her own opinion and Mr. Boyd's.

The poem entitled 'Sounds,' in the volume of 1838, contained the line 'As erst in Patmos apolyptic John,' presumably for 'apocalyptic.' This being naturally held to be 'without excuse,' the line was altered in subsequent editions to 'As the seer-saint of Patmos, loving John.'

The engagement of Prince Albert to Queen Victoria took place in October 1839.

'Crowned and Buried' (Poetical Works, iii. 9).

Poetical Works, iii. 152.

These versions are not reprinted in her collected Poetical Works, but are to be found in 'Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer modernised,' (1841).

Poetical Works, iii. 186.

Translations of three poems of Gregory Nazianzen, printed in the Athenaeum of January 8, 1842.

Mr. Thomas Westwood was the author of a volume of 'Poems,' published in 1840, 'Beads from a Rosary' (1843), 'The Burden of the Bell' (1850), and other volumes of verse. Several of his compositions were appearing occasionally in the Athenaeum at the time when this correspondence with Miss Barrett commenced.

The Essay on Mind.

The series of papers on the Greek Christian Poets appeared in the Athenaeum for February and March 1842; they are reprinted in the Poetical Works, v. 109-200.

This scheme took shape in the series of papers on the English Poets which appeared in the Athenaeum in the course of June and August 1842 (reprinted in Poetical Works, v. 201-290).

Miss Barrett's dog, the gift of Miss Mitford. His praise is sung in her poem, 'To Flush, my Dog' (Poetical Works, iii. 19), and in many of the following letters. He accompanied his mistress to Italy, lived to a good old age, and now lies buried in the vaults of Casa Guidi.

George Burges, the classical scholar. He had in 1832 contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine (under a pseudonym) some lines purporting to be a newly discovered portion of the Bacchae, but really composed by himself on the basis of a parallel passage in the Christus Patiens. It is apparently to these lines that Miss Barrett alludes, though the 'discovery' was then nearly ten years old.

Ultimately five.

This refers to the recent publication of Tennyson's Poems, in two volumes, the first containing a re-issue of poems previously published, while the second was wholly new, and included such poems as the 'Morte d'Arthur,' 'Ulysses,' and 'Locksley Hall.'

No doubt Mr. Kenyon's translation of Schiller's 'Gods of Greece,' which was the occasion of Miss Barrett's poem 'The Dead Pan.'

Poems, chiefly of early and late years, including The Borderers, a Tragedy (1842).

It was this picture that called forth the sonnet, 'On a Portrait of Wordsworth by B.R. Haydon' (Poetical Works, iii. 62), alluded to in the next letter.

The following is the letter from Wordsworth which gave such pleasure to Miss Barrett, and which she treasured among her papers for the rest of her life. Two slips of the pen have been corrected between brackets.

'Rydal Mount: Oct. 26, '42.

'Dear Miss Barrett,—Through our common friend Mr. Haydon I have received a sonnet which his portrait of me suggested. I should have thanked you sooner for that effusion of a feeling towards myself, with which I am much gratified, but I have been absent from home and much occupied.

'The conception of your sonnet is in full accordance with the painter's intended work, and the expression vigorous; yet the word "ebb," though I do not myself object to it, nor wish to have it altered, will I fear prove obscure to nine readers out of ten.

"A vision free
And noble, Haydon, hath thine art released."

Owing to the want of inflections in our language the construction here is obscure. Would it not be a little [better] thus? I was going to write a small change in the order of the words, but I find it would not remove the objection. The verse, as I take it, would be somewhat clearer thus, if you would tolerate the redundant syllable:

"By a vision free
And noble, Haydon, is thine art released."

I had the gratification of receiving, a good while ago, two copies of a volume of your writing, which I have read with much pleasure, and beg that the thanks which I charged a friend to offer may be repeated [to] you.

'It grieved me much to hear from Mr. Kenyon that your health is so much deranged. But for that cause I should have presumed to call upon you when I was in London last spring.

'With every good wish, I remain, dear Miss Barrett, your much obliged

'WM. WORDSWORTH.'

(Postmark: Ambleside, Oct. 28, 1842.)

It may be added that although Miss Barrett altered the passage criticised by the great poet, she did not accept his amendment. It now runs

'A noble vision free
Our Haydon's hand has flung out from the mist.

The Greek προγιγνώσκειν [progignôskein], used in Romans viii. 29.

See 'Hector in the Garden' (Poetical Works, iii. 37).

Poetical Works, iii. 105.

'The Dead Pan' (Poetical Works, iii. 280).

The Athenaeum of April 22 contained a review of Browning's 'Dramatic Lyrics,' charging him with taking pleasure in being enigmatical, and declaring this to be a sign of weakness, not strength. It spoke of many of the pieces composing the volume as being rather fragments and sketches than having any right to independent existence.

Mr. Kenyon's view evidently prevailed, for stanza 19 now has 'scornful children.'

Wordsworth was nominated Poet Laureate after the death of Southey in March 1843.

Orion, the early editions of which were sold at a farthing, in accordance with a fancy of the author. Miss Barrett reviewed it in the Athenaum (July 1843).

This refers to the competition for the cartoons to be painted in the Houses of Parliament, in which Haydon was unsuccessful. The disappointment was the greater, inasmuch as the scheme for decorating the building with historical pictures was mainly due to his initiative.

The Lay of the Brown Rosary.

'To Flush, my dog' (Poetical Works, iii. 19).

Published in Blackwood's Magazine for August 1843, and called forth by Mr. Horne's report as assistant commissioner on the employment of children in mines and manufactories.

Evidently a slip of the pen for 'Children.'

Poetical Works, iii. 186. Mr. Boyd's opinion of it may be learnt from Miss Barrett's letter to Horne, dated August 31, 1843 (Letters to R.H. Horne, i. 84): 'Mr. Boyd told me that he had read my papers on the Greek Fathers with the more satisfaction because he had inferred from my "House of Clouds" that illness had impaired my faculties.'

Poetical Works, i. 223.

The lines 'To J.S.,' which begin:

'The wind that beats the mountain blows
More softly round the open wold.'

About the same date she writes to Home (Letters to R.H. Horne, i. 86): 'I am very glad to hear that nothing really very bad is the matter with Tennyson. If anything were to happen to Tennyson, the world should go into mourning.'

In the Athenaeum.

'Crowned and Buried' (Poetical Works, iii. 9).

Her contributions to the essays on Tennyson and Carlyle have recently been printed in Messrs. Nichols and Wise's Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century, i. 33, ii. 105.

Letters to R.H. Home, ii. 146.

Referring to Mr. Kenyon's encouraging comments on the 'Drama of Exile,' which he had seen in manuscript at a time when Miss Barrett was very despondent about it.

In the 'Drama of Exile,' near the beginning (Poetical Works, i. 7).

By Monckton Milnes, afterwards Lord Houghton.