Day: July 8, 2018

[Postmark: July 8, 1846]

My own Ba, I received your note on my return from
Talfourd’s last night. I am anxious to get the first post for
this, so can only use the bare words, – if those. After
dinner, Forster put a question to our host about the
amount of the subscription ; and in a minute the paper-
bequest was introduced. Talfourd had received a letter from
Miss Mitford, enclosing one from you (or a copy of one . . I
did not hear) – whereat he pronounced ‘ so emphatically
upon H.’s conduct in making you,-‘ who could never have
known the nature of the transaction nor the very serious
consequences it involved’ the depositary of his pictures
&c. on such occasions, – the words, ‘ H. it seems, has been
in the habit of using Miss B’s house &c.’ (or to that effect)
had so offensive an implication, – that I felt obliged to say
simply, you had never seen Haydon and were altogether
amazed and distressed at his desire, – and that, for the
other matter, what he chose to send, you could not, I
supposed, bring yourself to refuse admittance to the house.
I gave no particular account of my own means of know-
ledge, nor spoke further than to remove the impression
from the minds of the people present that you must have
‘ known ‘ Haydon, as they call ‘ knowing ‘ – and Forster, for
one, expressed surprise at it. I ventured to repeat what I
mentioned to you – ‘ that it seemed likely you were selected
for the Editorship precisely on account of your isolation
from the world.’

Soon after, Forster went away – and, up-stairs, I got
Talfourd alone, and just told him that I was in the habit of
corresponding with you, that you had made me acquainted
with a few of the circumstances, and that you had at once
thought of him, Talfourd, as the proper source of instruction
on the subject. Talfourd’s reply amounted to this, – (in
the fewest words possible). The will &c. is of course an
absurdity. The papers are the undoubted property of the
creditors . . any attempt to publish them would subject
you to an action at law. They were given prospectively to
you exactly for the reason I suggested : they having been in the
first instance offered to Talfourd. Haydon knew that T.
would never print them in their offensive integrity, and hoped
that you would – being quite of the average astuteness in
worldly matters when his own vanity and selfishness were not
concerned. They might, these papers, be published with
advantage to Mrs. Haydon at some future time if the
creditors permit or without their permitting, if woven into
a substantially new framework ; as some ‘ Haydon and his
Times,’ or the like . . but there is nothing to call for such
a step at present, even in that view of advantage to the
family . . the subscription and other assistances being
sufficient for their necessities. Therefore the course T.
would recommend you to adopt is to let the deposit (if you
have one . . for he did not know, and I said nothing) – lie
untouched not giving them up to anybody, any creditor,
to Mrs. H’s prejudice.

Now, can you do better than as Forster advises?
Talfourd goes on circuit to-morrow – he said, ‘ I can hear,
or arrange anything with Miss B’s brother ‘ – so that, if there
should be no time, you can write by him, and entrust
explanations &c. But would it not be best to get done with
this matter directly to write a BRIEF note in the course of
to-day, mentioning the facts, and requesting advice ? In
order to leave you the time to do this, – should the post
presently bring me a letter allowing me to see you at three
. . unless the allowance is very free, very irresistible . . I
will rather take to-morrow . . a piece of self-denial I fear I
should not so readily bring myself to exhibit, were I not
really obliged to pass your house to-day ; so that even Ba
will understand !

Miss Mitford’s note appears to have been none of the
wisest – indeed a phrase or two I heard, were purely foolish :
H. was said to have practised ‘ Ion’s principle’ !

T. had known Haydon most intimately and for a long
time : he does not believe H. was mad — of a mad vanity, of
course. His last paper . . ‘ Haydon’s Thoughts ‘ . . was a
dissertation on the respective merits of Napoleon and
Wellington – how wrong Haydon felt he had been to prefer
the former . . and the why and the wherefore. All this
wretched stuff, in a room theatrically arranged, here his
pictures, there . . God forgive us all, fools or wise by
comparison ! The debts are said to be £3,000 . . he
having been an insolvent debtor . . how long before?
His landlord, a poor man, is creditor for £1,200.

Here I will end, and wait : this is written in all haste
. . and is so altogether no proper letter of mine that I shall
put the necessary ‘ Private ‘ at the top of it. My letter shall
go presently, if I do not go, to my own Ba-

R. B.

Should you write to your brother . . will he need
reminding that Talfourd is only to know we correspond, –
not that we are personally acquainted ? Had you not better
mention this in any case ?

God bless you, dearest, – what a letter from me to you –
to Ba ! Time, Time !

[Postmark: July 8, 1846]

Tuesday Evening

Yes—I understand you perfectly—and it should be exactly as you say—and it is just that, which requires so much adroitness,—and such decision and strength of hand, to manage these responsibilities. Somebody is wanted to cut and burn, and be silent afterwards. I remember that bitter things are said of Shelley and Leigh Hunt beyond all the bitterness of alcohol. Olives do not taste so, though steeped in salt. There are some curious letters by poor Keats about Hunt, and they too are bitter. It would be dreadful to suffer these miseries to sow themselves about the world, like so much thistle-down . . the world, where there are thistles enough already, to make fodder for its wild asses!

As to Landor . . oh, I did not remember the note you speak of in the satire you speak of—but you remember everything . . . even me. Is it not true that Landor, too, is one of the men who carry their passions about with them into everything, as a boy would, pebbles . . muddying every clear water, with a stone here and a stone there. The end is, that we lose the image of himself in the serene depth, as we might have had it—and the little stone comes to stand for him. How unworthy of such a man as Landor, such weakness is! To think with one’s temper!! One might as well be at once Don Quixote, and fight with a warming-pan.

But I did not remember the former opinion. I took it for a constitutional fancy of Lander’s, and did not smile much more at it than at my own ‘profundity in German,’ which was a matter of course . . of course . . of course. For have I not the gift of tongues? Don’t I talk Syriac . . as well as Flush talks English—and Hebrew, like a prophetess . . and various other languages and dialects less familiarly known to persons in general than these aforesaid? So, profound indeed, must be the German and the Dutch! And perhaps it may not be worth while to answer Mr. Landor’s note for the mere purpose of telling him anything about it.

Dearest!—I have written all this before I would say a word of your coming, just to think a little more—and down all these pages I have been thinking, thinking, of you . . of your possible coming . . what nonsense they must be! Well! and the end is that, let it be wise or unwise, I must and will see you to-morrow—I cannot do otherwise. It is just as if Flush had been shut up in a box for so many days. My spirits flag . . and I could find it in my heart to grow cross like Landor and deny Goethe. So come, dearest dearest—and let the world bark at our heels if it pleases. I will just turn round and set Flush at it.

For two or three days I have not been out—not for two days . . not out of this room. This evening at seven, when they were all going to dinner, I took Wilson with me and drove into the park for air. It will do me good perhaps—but your coming will, certainly. So come, my dearest beloved!—At three, remember.

Your own
BA.