p. 105
‘Do you conjecture…’ EBB to RB 11 August 1845, #1996.
p. 106
‘I have not been asleep…’ EBB to Kenyon c.January 1838, #607. ‘Flannel waistcoats…’ EBB to Arabella MB and Mary Hunter 27 September 1838, #666. ‘Used to—frighten me…’ EBB to Mitford 8 June 1836, #528.
p. 107
‘Consensus…’ The Athenaeum 7 July 1838 pp. 466–68. The other reviews appear in: The Atlas (23 June 1838), p. 395; The Examiner (24 June 1838), pp. 387–88; Blackwood’s (August 1838), pp. 279–84; The Metropolitan Magazine (August 1838), pp. 97–101; The Monthly Chronicle (August 1838), p.195; The Monthly Review (September 1838), pp. 125–30; The Sunbeam (1 September 1838), pp. 243 & 245, (8 September), pp. 254–55, (23 September), pp. 269–70, (6 October) p. 287, (13 October), pp. 293–95; The Literary Gazette (1 December 1838), pp. 759–60; and The Quarterly Review (September 1840), pp. 382–89. The Metropolitan Magazine and The Examiner concede that The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost also pose the problem of religious poetry.
p. 108
‘Elizabeth’s own faith…’ The Revd Hunter and his daughter Mary remain in the family’s life.
‘Forcing houses…’ Both Byron and Shelley first published books of poetry at seventeen: respectively, Fugitive Pieces (1805) and Original Poetry; By Victor and Cazire (1810); unlike Elizabeth, they followed these up promptly.
p. 109
‘Indeed it does seem…’ EBB to Mitford 8 June 1836, #528. ‘Let me apply my theory about “spoiling children” to your practice of spoiling me—& go on to maintain that nobody is injured by too much love!’ EBB to Mitford 30 October 1838, #669.
‘In seeing Lady Dacre…’ EBB to Mitford 3 July 1838, #651. ‘The most eloquent woman I ever heard speak, certainly—and the vainest in speaking of herself’: EBB to Mitford 27 September 1839, #713.
‘Brother in law…’ SD835.
p. 110
‘I have been…’ EBB to Mitford 1 June 1838, #636. ‘& my weakness…’ EBB to Boyd 21 June 1838, #645.
According to Forster, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, note 1 to chapter 6, pp. 378–79, ‘At a meeting of the Browning Society in 1985, two eminent doctors’ agreed on Dr Chambers’s proficiency, and that therefore EBB doesn’t suffer from TB at this point.
‘A helpless being…’ EBB to Lady Margaret Cocks 4 August 1838, #658. With ‘only a too great fullness of the blood vessels upon them’: EBB to Mitford 10 August 1838, #660.
p. 111
‘Sisterless…’ Henrietta MB to Sam MB 15 September 1838, SD943: ‘I was in a most terrible state of inquietude & anxiety, about the probability that existed of not obtaining permission to accompany our dearest Ba to these genial shores, but Papa very kindly gave it to me at last.’
The Hedleys’ elegant Regency hilltop house is ‘The Braddens’. This move is ‘The difference between the coldest situation in Torquay & the warmest’. EBB to Mitford 10 October 1838, #668.
Bummy arrives from Frocester: SD943.
Crow’s mother will be living in Caistor when Crow returns to her for the birth of her first child.
‘And indeed…’ EBB to Mitford 14 August 1838, #662.
p. 112
‘She is an excellent…’ EBB to Mitford 9 August 1841, #841. ‘A young man…’ EBB to Mitford ?25 October 1839, #715, makes clear this sequence of events. ‘Haunted… London habit…’ EBB to Mitford 25 September 1838, #664. ‘On the occasion… These partings…’ EBB to Arabella MB and Mary Hunter, 27 September 1838, #666.
p. 113
‘I had a doctor…’ EBB to RB 11 August 1845, #1996. ‘Encouraged… the blister &c…’ #666. Inhalations like Tincture of Benzoin have been around since the 1760s.
‘Dear Bro’s individual opinion was that he would do better in returning to London’: #666. Her brothers will ‘quench the energies of their lives in hunting & fishing’ if the family retreats to a Welsh estate where they cannot practise their professions. EBB to George Goodin MB 15 April 1841, #805.
‘The lovely bay…’ #668.
p. 114
‘After only one hour…’ Samuel Goodin Barrett to R. W. Appleton 23 May 1839, SD1005.
‘Able and most kind…’ EBB to Mitford ?14 September 1839, #710. ‘He has taken a great interest in her which is also very much in his favor—as he has not received as yet a farthing for his attendance, she wrote to him the other day requesting he would let her know “the pecuniary part of her obligations to him” he sent in his account £125—a moderate charge I think for so long a time’: Henrietta MB to Samuel MB 14 September 1839, SD1042. #715.
‘Comes to see her…’ Henrietta MB to Samuel MB 14 December 1839, SD1090. ‘Not any thinner…’ SD1090.
Sam and Stormie were sent to Jamaica together on the 26 June 1839.
After Sam’s death, Stormie returned in December 1840: Henrietta MB to Samuel MB 14–15 July 1839, SD1018.
p. 115
Sleeping around: Forster, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, p. 97, no ref given. ‘Never taken the sacrament…’ Hope Waddell to Edward B MB 20 February 1840, SD1116. ‘It was a heavy blow…’ EBB to Richard Hengist Horne 15 May 1840, #756. Papa hurries to Torquay: ‘When I saw her she appeared crushed by the intelligence; she has never wept, nor has ever alluded to the distressing subject’: Edward B MB to Septimus MB 4 May 1840, SD1121. ‘It is a monstrous time…’ Edward B MB to Septimus MB 24 June 1840, SD1127.
p. 116
‘Occupation…’ EBB to George Goodin MB 17 June 1840, #766.
Gatecrashing: Edward B MB to EBB 9 March 1840, #741; EBB to Mitford 28 March 1840, #748.
The family are enthusiastically pro-monarchy. EBB publishes verses on the royal marriage in The Athenaeum; Miss Mitford conspires to get them to the Queen via a lady-in-waiting.
Bro’s romance: Henrietta MB to Samuel MB 14–15 July 1839, SD1018; #766; EBB to RB 12 December 1845, #2136.
p. 117
Edward B MB to George Goodin MB 13 July 1840, SD1129.
p. 118
‘It is a wonder…’ Edward B MB to Septimus MB 1 August 1840, SD1131. ‘These walls…’ EBB to Mitford early October 1840, #772. ‘If I dont return soon, my affairs will be so enta[n]gled that I shall never be able to unravel them’; Edward B MB to Septimus MB 26 August 1840, SD1132.
