p. 158
‘I never had…’ #2007.
p. 159
‘Natural inferiority…’ EBB to RB 2–3 July 1845 #1965. Her letters at this time ask repeatedly after Robert’s health.
He knows he’s the junior partner: RB to EBB 3 March 1846, #2238.
Germaine Greer, Slip-Shod Sibyls: Recognition, Rejection and the Woman Poet (London and New York: Viking Penguin, 1995); Susan Kavaler-Adler, The Compulsion to Create: A Psychoanalytic Study of Women Artists (London: Routledge, 1993).
p. 160
‘Saved a living man…’ EBB to RB 23 June 1846, #2433. ‘Constrained bodily…’ #2007. ‘I am…’ EBB to RB 11 October 1845, #2062.
1845 is in the top five warm summers since records began: http://www.pascalbonenfant.com/18c/geography/weather.html [retrieved 30 April 2019].
EBB’s first carriage rides: EBB to RB 7 July 1845, #1968. Her first stroll: EBB to RB 11 May 1846, #2355.
p. 161
‘That Dreamland…’ EBB to RB 27 June 1846, #2441. EBB goes visiting: EBB to RB 30 June 1846, #2446. To the GWR: EBB to RB 13 June 1846, #2414. To look at art: EBB to RB 22 June 1846, #2430. On taking laudanum: EBB to Julia Martin c.7 October 1845, #2057. On cutting down: EBB to RB 4 Feb 1846, #2197. ‘I shall refuse steadily…’ EBB to RB 12 June 1846, #2412.
p. 162
‘Nearly two hundred…’ #2414. ‘Courage…’ EBB to Fanny Dowglass c.23 July 1846, #2500. For Cava de’ Tirreni, EBB’s guide uses the Neopolitan name, ‘La Cava’: EBB to RB 30 June 1846, #2444.
‘I have not been in the habit of saying “Robert”, speaking of you. You have only been The One. No word ever stood for you—’ EBB to RB 2 July 1846, #2455.
‘If we are poor…’ RB to EBB 26 August 1846, #2561. W. Craig Turner, ed, The Poet Robert Browning and his Kinsfolk by his Cousin Cyrus Mason (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 1983), p. 63.
p. 163
‘Tender-hearted… Shuts his eyes…’ RB to EBB 27 August 1846, #2564.
Grandfather ‘Rob’ Browning’s will is cited in UCL Legacies of British Slave-ownership, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146646289 [retrieved 26 April 2019].
Even if there were a bequest from Tittle, Robert senior may well have refused it.
Paying back: The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 3, p 308. Banking is also practised by Robert senior’s father and two younger half-brothers.
Robert senior’s art collection: Richard S. Kennedy, The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning: A Literary Life (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2007), p. 9.
p. 164
His half-brother Reuben says his library ‘comprised […] the critical points of ancient and modern history, the lore of the Middle Ages, all political combinations of parties, their description and consequences; and especially the lives of the poets and painters.’ Kelley et al., Biographical note citing G & M, p. 8, and Reconstruction, J42. (The feast of Charles the Martyr is to remain in the Anglican calendar till 1859.)
‘Dear Mr Kenyon…’ EBB to RB 31 January 1846, #2195. Migraines: RB to EBB 12 May 1845, #1912; RB to EBB 13 May 1845, #1914.
p. 165
No ‘femmelette…’: ‘He has too much genius for it. Men of high imagination never subject themselves to the conventions of society […] He lives in the world, but loathes it.’ EBB to Mitford 14 April 1845, #1885.
‘Indian Empire…’ EBB to George Goodin MB 1 April 1846, #2285.
‘Imperialist’ is first used in the early years of the nineteenth century of Napoleon I’s expansionism. D. A. Lake: ‘Imperialism: political aspects’ in Elsevier, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences 2001, pp. 7232–4.
The Condition and Treatment of Children employed in the Mines and Collieries of the United Kingdom Carefully compiled from the appendix to the first report of the Commissioners With copious extracts from the evidence, and illustrative engravings (London: William Strange, 1842). Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine vol. LIV, no. CCCXXXIV (August 1843), pp. 260–62.
p. 166
‘As a woman… Lift my voice…’ EBB to Clementia Taylor 2 April 1845, #1878.
p. 167
‘Blood of a slave…’ EBB to RB 20 December 1845, #2144.
p. 168
The Revd John Tittle arrived on St Kitts in 1730, ‘Appointed by the SPG […] as attorney for Ponds and Lucas Estate […] Privateers kept seizing his ships, which were then diverted to New York, where his brother lived! The SPG eventually dismissed him […] However, sustained by local support, and secure in his two cures of St. Peter’s and St. George’s, he refused to accept dismissal. He married between 1731 and 1733 Margaret Strachan, daughter of the surgeon Dr. George Strachan of St. Kitts. Their daughter, Margaret Tittle, married in 1778 the first Robert Browning; and their son Robert, born in 1781, was sent to St. Kitts to work on his mother’s plantation [the] prosperous Anderson Estate, which the Revd Tittle had managed for William Coleman, the London merchant, and himself.’ Kathleen D. Manchester, Historic Heritage of St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla (Trinidad: the Author, 1971) pp. 16–17.
‘I never showed them…’ EBB to Arabella MB 12 January 1851, #2899.
‘Swindling’ Kenyon: ‘I feel trodden down by either his too great penetration or too great unconsciousness.’ EBB to RB 31 January 1846, #2195. ‘Secrets indeed…’ EBB to RB 12 August 1846, #2535.
p. 169
Surtees is made captain after exchanging to 83rd Foot Regiment; he won’t be promoted to major for fifteen years.
Aunt Hedley: ‘At dinner my aunt said to Papa .. “I have not seen Ba all day—and when I went to her room, to my astonishment a gentleman was sitting there”. “Who was that” said Papa’s eyes to Arabel—“Mr Browning called here today,” she answered—“And Ba bowed her head”, continued my aunt, “as if she meant to signify to me that I was not to come in”—“Oh,” cried Henrietta, “that must have been a mistake of yours. Perhaps she meant just the contrary.”’ EBB to RB 15 July 1846, #2484; EBB to RB 13 July 1846, #2482.
‘Why should not…’ RB to EBB 12 June 1846, #2411.
p. 170
‘Therefore decide…’ EBB to RB 9 September 1846, #2593. ‘Married directly…’ RB to EBB
