Life and letters of Robert Browning

Preface

Such letters of Mr. Browning's as appear, whole or in part, in the present volume have been in most cases given to me by the persons to whom they were addressed, or copied by Miss Browning from the originals under her care ; but I owe to the daughter of the Rev. W. J. Fox — Mrs. Bridell- Fox — those written to her father and to Miss Flower, the two interesting extracts from her father's correspondence with herself, and Mr. Browning's note to Mr. Robertson.

For my general material I have been largely indebted to Miss Browning. Her memory was the only existing record of her vi PREFACE.

brother's boyhood and youth. It has been to me an unfailing as well as always accessible authority for that subsequent period of his life which I could only know in disconnected facts or his own fragmentary reminiscences. It is less true, indeed, to say that she has greatly helped me in writing this short biography than that without her help it could never have been undertaken.

I thank my friends Mrs. R. Courtenay Bell and Miss Hickey for their invaluable assistance in preparing the book for and carrying it through the press ; and I acknowledge with real gratitude the advantages derived by it from Mr. Dykes Campbell's large literary experience in his very careful

final revision of the proofs.

A. ORR

Chapter I. Page

Origin of the Browning Family. — Robert Browning's Grandfather. — His Position and Character. — His first and second Marriage. — Unkindness towards his eldest Son, Robert Browning's Father. — Alleged Infusion of West Indian Blood through Robert Browning's Grandmother. — Existing Evidence against it. — The Grandmother's Portrait 1

Chapter II

Robert Browning's Father. • — His Position in Li^e. — Comparison between him and his Son. — Tenderness towards his Son. — Outline of hiS Habits and Character. — His Death. — Significant' Newspaper Paragraph. — Letter of Mr. Locker-Lampson. — Robert Browning's Mother. — Her Character and Antecedents. — Their Influence upon her Son. — Nervous Delicacy imparted to both her Children. — Its special Evidences in her Son 13 viii CONTENTS.

Chapter III. 1812-1826

Birth of Robert Browning. — His Childhood and Schooldays. — Restless Temperament. — Brilliant Mental Endowments. — Incidental Peculiarities. — Strong Religious Feeling. — Passionate Attachment to his Mother; Grief at first Separation. — Fondness for Animals. — Experiences of School Life. — Extensive Reading. — Early Attempts in Verse. — Letter from his Father concerning them. — Spurious Poems in Circulation. — " Incondita." — Mr. Fox. — Miss Flower 32

CHAPTER lY.

1826-1833.

First Impressions of Keats and Shelley. — Prolonged Influence of Shelley. — Details of Home Education. — Its Effects. — Youthful Restlessness. — Counteracting Love of Home. — Early Friendships ; Alfred Domett, Joseph Arnould, the Silverthornes. — Choice of Poetry as a Profession. — Alternative Suggestions; mistaken Rumors concerning them. — Interest in Art. — Love of good Theatrical Performances. — Talent for Acting. — Final Preparation for Literary Life . 55

Chapter V. 1833-1835

*' Pauline." — Letters to Mr. Fox. — Publication of the Poem ; chief Biographical and Literary Characteris-

CONTENTS. IX

tics. — Mr. Fox's Review in the " Monthly Repository ; " other Notices. — Russian Journey. — Desired diplomatic Appointment. — Minor Poems ; first Sonnet ; their Mode of Appearance. — " The Trifler." — M. de Ripert-Monclar. — " Paracelsus." — Letters to Mr. Fox concerning it ; its Publication. — Incidental Origin of " Paracelsus ; " its inspiring Motive ; its Relation to " Pauline." — Mr. Fox's Review of it in the " Monthly Repository." — Article in the " Examiner " by John Forster 76

Chapter VI. 1835-1838

Removal to Hatcham ; some Particulars. — Renewed Intercourse with the second Family of Robert Browning's Grandfather. — Reuben Browning. — William Shergold Browning. — Visitors at Hatcham.

— Thomas Carlyle. — Social Life. — New Friends and Acquaintance. — Introduction to Macready. — New Year's Eve at Elm Place. — Introduction to John Forster. — Miss Fanny Ha worth. — Miss Martineau. — Serjeant Talfourd. — The " Ion " Supper.

— " Strafford." — Relations with Macready. — Performance of " Strafford." — Letters concerning it from Mr. Browning and Miss Flower. — Personal Glimpses of Robert Browning. — Rival Forms of Dramatic Inspiration. — Relation of " Strafford " to " Sordello." — Mr. Robertson and the " Westminster Review" o Ill

CONTENTS.

Chapter VII. 1838-1841

First Italian Journey. — Letters to Miss Haworth. — Mr. John Kenyon. — " Sordello." — Letter to Miss Flower. — " Pippa Passes." — " Bells and Pomegranates " 137

Chapter VIII. 1841-1844

'*A Blot in the 'Scutcheon." — Letters to Mr. Frank Hill ; Lady Martin. — Charles Dickens. — Other Dramas and Minor Poems. — Letters to Miss Lee ; Miss Haworth ; Miss Flower. — Second Italian Journey ; Naples. — E. J. Trelawney. — Stendhal . 168

Chapter IX. 1844-1849

[ntroduction to Miss Barrett. — Engagement. — Motives for Secrecy. — Marriage. — Journey to Italy. — Extract of Letter from Mr. Fox. — Mrs. Browning's Letters ^o Miss Mitf ord. — Life at Pisa. — Vallombrosa. — Florence ; Mr. Powers ; Miss Boyle. — Proposed British Mission to the Vatican. — Father Prout. — Palazzo Guidi. — Fano ; Ancona. — "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon " at Sadler's Wells . . . .201

CONTENTS. XI

Chapter X. 1849-1852

Death of Mr. Browning's Mother. — Birth of his Son.

— Mrs. Browning's Letters continued. — Baths of Lucca. — Florence again. — Venice. — Margaret Fuller Ossoli. — Visit to England. — Winter in Paris.

— Carlyle. — George Sand. — Alfred de Musset . . 233

CHAPTER XL

1852-1855.

M. Joseph Milsand. — His close Friendship with Mr. Browning ; Mrs. Browning's Impression of him. — New Edition of Mr. Browning's Poems. — " Christmas Eve and Easter Day." — " Essay " on Shelley.

— Summer in London. — Dante Gabriel Rossetti. — Florence ; secluded Life. — Letters from Mr. and Mrs. Browning. — " Colombe's Birthday." — Baths of Lucca. — Mrs. Browning's Letters. — Winter in Rome. — Mr. and Mrs. Story. — Mrs. Sartoris. — Mrs. Fanny Kemble. — Summer in London, — Tennyson. — Ruskin 260

CHAPTER XIL

1855-1858.

"Men and Women." — "Karshook." — "Two in the Campagna." — Winter in Paris ; Lady Elgin. — ** Aurora Leigh." — Death of Mr. Kenyon and Mr.

xu CONTENTS.

Barrett. — Penini. — Mrs. Browning's Letters to Miss Browning. — The Florentine Carnival. — Baths of Lucca. — Spiritualism. — Mr. Kirkup; Count Ginnasi. — Letter from Mr. Browning to Mr. Fox. — Havre o . . . 295

CHAPTER Xin.

1858-1861.

Mrs. Browning's Illness. — Siena. — Letter from Mr. Browning to Mr. Leighton. — Mrs. Browning's Letters continued. — Walter Savage Landor. — Winter in Rome. — Mr. Val Prinsep. — Friends in Rome : Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright. — Multiplying Social Relations. — Massimo d' Azeglio. — Siena again. — Illness and Death of Mrs. Browning's Sister. — Mr. Browning's Occupations. — Madame du Quaire. — Mrs. Browning's last Illness and Death 325

CHAPTER XIV.

1861-1863.

Miss Blagden. — Letters from Mr. Browning to Miss Ha worth and Mr. Leighton. — His Feeling in regard to Funeral Ceremonies. — Establishment in London. — Plan of Life. — Letter to Madame du Quaire. — Miss Arabel Barrett. — Biarritz. — Letters to Miss Blagden. — Conception of " The Ring and the Book." — Biographical Indiscretion. — New Edition of his Works. — Mr. and Mrs. Procter 357

CONTENTS. xiii

CHAPTER XV.

1863-1869.

Pornic. — "James Lee's Wife." — Meeting at Mr. F. Palgrave's. — Letters to Miss Blagden. — His own Estimate of his Work. — His Father's Illness and Death ; Miss Browning. — Le Croisic. — Academic Honors ; Letter to the Master of Balliol. — Death of Miss Barrett. — Audierne. — Uniform Edition of his Works. — His rising Fame. — " Dramatis Personae." — " The Ring and the Book ;" Character of Pompilia 385

CHAPTER XVI.

1869-1873.

Lord Dufferin ; " Helen's Tower." — Scotland ; Visit to Lady Ashburton. — Letters to Miss Blagden. — St.- Aubin ; The Franco-Prussian War. -^ " HervdRiel."

— Letter to Mr. G. M. Smith. — " Balairetion's Adventure ; " *' Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau." — "Fifine at the Fair." — Mistaken Theories of Mr. Browning's Work. — St. - Aubin ; " Red Cotton Nightcap Country " 415

CHAPTER XVII.

1873-1878.

London Life. — Love of Music. — Miss Egerton-Smith.

— Periodical Nervous Exhaustion. — Mers : " Arisxiv CONTENTS.

tophanes* Apology." — " Agamemnon." — " The Inn Album." — " Pacchiarotto and other Poems."

— Visits to Oxford and Cambridge. — Letters to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald. — St. Andrews ; Letter from Professor Knight. — In the Savoyard Mountains. — Death of Miss Egerton-Smith. — " La Saisiaz ; " " The Two Poets of Croisic." — Selections from his Works 437

CHAPTER XVIIL

1878-1884.

He revisits Italy ; Asolo ; Letters to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald.

— Venice. — Favorite Alpine Retreats. — Mrs. Arthur Bronson. — Life in Venice. — A tragedy al Saint-Pierre. — Mr. Cholmondeley. — Mr. Browning's Patriotic Feeling ; Extract from Letter to Mrs. Charles Skirrow. — " Dramatic Idyls." — " Jocoseria."—"Ferishtah's Fancies" 467

CHAPTER XIX.

1881-1887.

The Browning Society ; Mr. Furnivall ; Miss E. H. Hickey. — His Attitude towards the Society ; Letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald. —Mr. Thaxter; Mrs. Celia Thaxter. — Letter to Miss Hickey ; « Strafford."

— Shakspere and Wordsworth Societies. — Letters to Professor Knight. — Appreciation in Italy ; Professor Nencioni. — The Goldoni Sonnet. — Mr. Barrett Browning ; Palazzo Manzoni. — Letters to Mrs.

CONTENTS. XV

Charles Skirrow. — Mrs. Bloomfield Moore. — Llangollen ; Sir Theodore and Lady Martin. — Loss of old Friends. — Foreign Correspondent of the Royal Academy. — " PaYleyings with certain People of Importance in their Day " 498

CHAPTER XX.

Constancy to Habit. — Optimism. — Belief in Providence. — Political Opinions. — His Friendships. — Reverence for Genius. — Attitude towards his Public. — Attitude towards his Work. — Habits of Work.

— His Reading. — Conversational Powers, — Impulsiveness and Reserve. — Nervous Peculiarities.

— His Benevolence. — His Attitude towards Women 534

CHAPTER XXI.

1887-1889.

Marriage of Mr. Barrett Browning. — Removal to De Vere Gardens. — Symptoms of failing Strength. — New Poems ; New Edition of his Works. — Letters to Mr. George Bainton, Mr. Smith, and Lady Martin. — Primiero and Venice. — Letters to Miss Keep.

— The last Year in London. — Asolo. — Letters to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald, Mrs. Skirrow, and Mr. G. M. Smith 677 xvi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXII.

Proposed Purchase of Land at Asolo. — Venice. — Letter to Mr. G. Moulton-Barrett. — Lines in the « Athenseum." — Letter to Miss Keep. — Illness. — Death. — Funeral Ceremonial at Venice. — Publication of " Asolando." — Interment in Poets' Corner . 606

Conclusion

Index e c » . . • 635

LIFE A^D LETTERS

OF

ROBERT BROWNING.

Chapter I

Origin of the Browning Family. — Robert Browning's Grandfather. — His Position and Character. — His first and second Marriage. — Unkindness towards his eldest Son, Robert Browning's Father. — Alleged Infusion of West Indian Blood through Robert Browning's Grandmother. — Existing Evidence against it. — The Grandmother's Portrait.

A BELIEF was current in Mr. Browning's lifetime that he had Jewish blood in his veins. It received outward support from certain accidents of his life, from his known interest in the Hebrew language and literature, from his friendship for various members of the Jewish community in London. It might well have yielded to the fact of his never claiming the kinship, which could not have existed without his knowledge, and which, if he had known it, he would, by reason of these very sympathies, have been the last person to disavow. The results of more recent and more systematic inquiry have shown the beHef to be unfounded.

Our poet sprang, on the father's side, from an obscure or, as family tradition asserts, a decayed branch, of an Anglo-Saxon stock settled, at an early period of our history, in the south, and probably also southwest, of England. A line of Brownings owned the manors of Melbury-Sampford and Melbury-Osmond, in northwest Dorsetshire ; their last representative disappeared — or was believed to do so — in the time of Henry VII., their manors passing into the hands of the Earls of Ilchester, who still hold them.^ The name occurs after 1542 in different parts of the country : in two cases with the affix of " esquire," in two also, though not in both coincidently,

^ I am indebted for these facts, as well as for some others referring to, or supplied by, Mr. Browning's uncles, to some notes made for the Browning Society by Dr. Furnivall.

ANGLO-SAXON DESCENT. 3

within twenty miles of Pentridge, where the first distinct traces o£ the poet's family appear. Its cradle, as he called it, was Woodyates, in the parish of Pentridge, on the Wiltshire confines of Dorsetshire ; and there his ancestors, of the third and fourth generations, held, as we understand, a modest but independent social position.

This fragment of history, if we may so call it, accords better with our impression of Mr. Browning's genius than could any pedigree w^hich more palpably connected him with the " knightly " and " squirely " families whose name he bore. It supplies the strong roots of English national hfe to which we instinctively refer it. Both the vivid originality of that genius and its healthy assimilative power stamp it as, in some sense, the product of virgin soil ; and although the varied elements which entered into its growth were racial as well as cultural, and inherited as well as absorbed, the evidence of its strong natural or physical basis remains undisturbed.

Mr. Browning, for his own part, maintained a neutral attitude in the matter. He neither claimed nor disclaimed the more remote genealogical past which had presented itseK as a certainty to some older members of his family. He preserved the old framed coat -of -arms handed down to him from his grandfather ; and used, without misgiving as to his right to do so, a signet-ring engraved from it, the gift of a favorite uncle, in years gone by. But, so long as he was young, he had no reason to think about his ancestors ; and, when he was old, he had no reason to care about them ; he knew himself to be, in every possible case, the most important fact in his family history.

he wrote, a few years back, to a friend who had incidentally questioned him about it.

Our immediate knowledge of the family begins with Mr. Browning's grandfather, also a Robert Browning, who obtained through Lord Shaftesbury's influence a clerkship in the Bank of England, and entered on it when barely twenty, in 1769. He served fifty years, and

ANGLO-SAXON DESCENT. 5

rose to the position of Principal of the Bank Stock Office, then an important one, and which brought him into contact with the leading financiers of the day. He became also a lieutenant in the Honorable Artillery Company, and took part in the defense of the Bank in the Gordon Kiots of 1780. He was an able, energetic, and worldly man : an Englishman, very much of the provincial type; his literary tastes being limited to the Bible and " Tom Jones," both of which he is said to have read through once a year. He possessed a handsome person and, probably, a vigorous constitution, since he lived to the age of eighty-four, though frequently tormented by gout; a circumstance which may help to account for his not having seen much of his grandchildren, the poet and his sister ; we are indeed told that he particularly dreaded the lively boy's vicinity to his afflicted foot. He married, in 1778, Margaret, daughter of a Mr. Tittle by his marriage with Miss Seymour ; and who was born in the West Indies and had inherited property there. They had three children : Eobert, the poet's father ; a daughter, who Kved an uneventful hfe and plays no part in the family history ; and another son who died an infant. The Creole mother died also when her eldest boy was only seven years old, and passed out of his memory in all but an indistinct impression of having seen her lying in her coffin. Five years later the widower married a Miss Smith, who gave him a large family.

This second marriage of Mr. Browning's was a critical event in the life of his eldest son ; it gave him, to all appearance, two stepparents instead of one. There could have been httle sympathy between his father and himself, for no two persons were ever more unlike, but there was yet another cause for the systematic unkindness under which the lad grew up. Mr. Browning fell, as a hard man easily does, greatly under the influence of his second wife, and this influence was made by her to subserve the interests of a more than natural jealousy of her predecessor. An early instance of this was her ban-

HIS GRANDFATHER AND FATHER. 7

ishing the dead lady's portrait to a garret, on the plea that her husband did not need two wives. The son could be no burden upon her because he had a little income, derived from his mother's brother ; but this, probably, only heightened her ill-will towards him. When he was old enough to go to a university, and very desirous of going — when, moreover, he offered to do so at his own cost — she induced his father to forbid it, because, she urged, they could not afford to send their other sons to college. An earlier ambition of his had been to become an artist ; but when he showed his first completed picture to his father, the latter turned away and refused to look at it. He gave himself the finishing stroke in the parental eyes, by throwing up a lucrative employment which he had held for a short time on his mother's West Indian property, in disgust at the system of slave labor which was still in force there ; and he paid for this unpractical conduct as soon as he was of age, by the compulsory reimbursement of all the expenses which his father, up to that date, had incurred for him ; and by the loss of his mother's fortune, which, at the time of her marriage, had not been settled upon her. It was probably in despair of doing anything better, that, soon after this, in his twenty-second year, he also became a clerk in the Bank of England. He married and settled in Camberwell, in 1811 ; his son and daughter were born, respectively, in 1812 and 1814. He became a widower in 1849 ; and when, four years later, he had completed his term of service at the Bank, he went with his daughter to Paris, where they resided until his death in 1866.

Dr. Furnivall has originated a theory, and maintains it as a conviction, that Mr. Browning's grandmother was more than a Creole in the strict sense of the term, that of a person born of white parents in the West Indies, and that an unmistakable dash of dark blood passed from her to her son and grandson. Such an occurrence was, on the face of it, not impossible, and would be absolutely unimportant to my mind, and, I think I may add,

IMPUTATION OF MIXED BLOOD. 9

to that of Mr. Browning's sister and son. I The poet and his father were what we know them, and if negro blood had any part in their composition, it was no worse for them^ and so much the better for the negro. \ But many persons among us are very averse to the idea of such a cross ; I believe its assertion, in the present case, to be entirely mistaken ; I prefer, therefore, touching on the facts alleged in favor of it, to passing them over in a silence which might be taken to mean indifference, but might also be interpreted into assent.

We are told that Mr. Browning was so dark in early life, that a nephew who saw him in Paris, in 1837, mistook him for an Italian. He neither had nor could have had a nephew ; and he was not out of England at the time specified. /It is said that when Mr. Browning senior was residing on his mother's sugar plantation at St. Kitt's, his appearance was held to justify his being placed in church among the colored members of the congrega-/ tion. We are assured in the strongest terms that the story has no foundation, and this by a gentleman whose authority in all matters concerning the Browning family Dr. Furnivall has otherwise accepted as conclusive. If the anecdote were true it would be a singular circumstance that Mr. Browning senior was always fond of drawing negro heads, and thus obviously disclaimed any unpleasant association with them.

I do not know the exact physical indications by which a dark strain is perceived ; but if they are to be sought in the coloring of eyes, hair, and skin, they have been conspicuously absent in the two persons who in the present case are supposed to have borne them. The poet's father had light blue eyes and, I am assured by those who knew him best, a clear, ruddy complexion. His appearance induced strangers passing him in the Paris streets to remark, " C'est un Anglais ! " The absolute whiteness of Miss Browning's skin was modified in her brother by a sallow tinge sufficiently explained by frequent disturbance of the liver ; but it never affected the clearness of his large blue-gray eyes ; and his hair,

EVIDENCE AGAINST IT. 11

which grew dark as he approached manhood, though it never became black, is spoken of, by every one who remembers him in childhood and youth, as golden. It is no less worthy o£ note that the daughter of his early friend Mr. Fox, who grew up in the little social circle to which he belonged, never even heard of the dark cross now imputed to him ; and a lady who made his acquaintance during his twenty-fourth year wrote a sonnet upon him, beginning with these words : —

Thy brow is calm, young Poet — pale and clear As a moonlighted statue.

The sug-o^estion of Italian characteristics in the poet's face may serve, however, to introduce a curious fact, which can have no bearing on the main lines of his descent, but holds collateral possibilities concerning it. His mother's name Wiedemann or Wiedeman appears in a merely contracted form as that of one of the oldest families naturalized in Yenice. It became united by marriage with the Rezzonico ; and, by a strange coincidence, the last of these who occupied the palace now owned by Mr. Barrett Browning was a Widman-Rezzonico. The present Contessa Widman has lately restored her own palace, which was fallinof into ruin.

That portrait of the first Mrs. Brownings which gave so much umbrage to her hus= band's second wife, has hung for many years in her grandson's dining-room, and is well known to all his friends. It represents a stately woman with an unmistakably fair skin ; and if the face or hair betrays any indication of possible dark blood, it is imperceptible to the general observer, and must be of too sHght and f uofitive a nature to enter into the discussion. A long curl touches one shoulder. One hand rests upon a copy of Thomson's " Seasons," which was held to be the proper study and recreation of cultivated women in those days. The picture was painted by Wright of Derby.

A brother of this lady was an adventurous traveler, and was said to have penetrated farther into the interior of Africa than any other European of his time. His violent death will be found recorded in a singular experience of the poet's middle life.

Chapter II

Robert Browning's Father. — His Position in Life. — Comparison between him and his Son. — Tenderness towards his Son. — Outline of his Habits and Character. — His Death. — Significant newspaper Paragraph. — Letter of Mr. Locker-Lampson. — Robert Browning's Mother. — Her Character and Antecedents. — Their Influence upon her Son. — Nervous Delicacy imparted to both her Children. — Its special Evidences in her Son.

It was almost a matter of course that Robert Brownino-'s father should be disinclined for bank work. We are told, and can easily imagine, that he was not so good an official as the grandfather ; we know that he did not rise so high, nor draw so large a salary. But he made the best of his position for his family's sake, and it was at that time both more important and more lucrative than such appointments have since become. Its emoluments could be increased by many honorable means not covered by the regular salary. The working-day was short, and every additional hour's service well paid. To be enrolled on the night-watch was also very remunerative ; there were enormous perquisites in pens, paper, and sealing-wax.^ Mr. Browning availed himself of these opportunities of adding to his income, and was thus enabled, with the help of his private means, to gratify his scholarly and artistic tastes, and give his children the benefit of a very liberal education — the one distinct ideal of success in hfe which such a nature as his could form. Constituted as he was, he probably suffered very little through the paternal unkindness which had forced him into an uncongenial career. Its only palpable result was to make him a more anxiously indulgent parent when his own time came.

Many circumstances conspired to secure to the coming poet a happier childhood and youth than his father had had. His path was

1 I have been told that, far from becoming careless in the use of these things from his practically unbounded command of them, he developed for them an almost superstitious reverence. He could never endure to see a scrap of writingpaper wasted.

FATHER AND SON. 15

to be smoothed not only by natural affection and conscientious care, but by literary and artistic sympathy. The second Mr. Browning differed, in certain respects, as much from the third as from the first. There were^ nevertheless, strong points in which, if he did not resemble, he at least distinctly foreshadowed him ; and the genius of the one would lack some possible explanation if we did not recognize in great measure its organized material in the other. Much, indeed, that was genius in the son existed as talent in the father. The moral nature of the younger man diverged from that of the older, though retaining strong points of similarity ; but the mental equipments of the two differed far less in themselves than in the different uses to which temperament and circumstances trained them.

The most salient intellectual characteristic of Mr. Browning senior was his passion for reading. In his daughter's words, " he read in season, and out of season ; " and he not only read, but remembered. As a schoolboy, he knew by heart the first book of the Iliad, and all the odes of Horace ; and it shows how deeply the classical part of his training must have entered into him, that he was wont, in later life, to soothe his little boy to sleep by humming to him an ode of Anacreon. It was one of his amusements at school to organiz3 Homeric combats among the boys, in which the fighting was carried on in the manner of the Greeks and Trojans, and he and his friend Kenyon would arm themselves with swords and shields, and hack at each other lustily, exciting themselves to battle by insulting speeches derived from the Homeric text.^

Mr. Browning had also an extraordinary power of versifying, and taught his son from babyhood the words he wished him to remember, by joining them to a grotesque rhyme ; the child learned all his Latin declensions in this way. His love of art had been

1 This anecdote is partly quoted from Mrs. Andrew Crosse, who has introduced it into her article " John Kenyon and his Friends," Temple Bar, April, 1890. She herself received it from Mr. Dykes Campbell.

HIS FATHER'S INTELLECTUAL TASTES. 17

proved by his desire to adopt it as a profession ; his talent for it was evidenced by the life and power of the sketches, often caricatures, which fell from his pen or pencil as easily as written words. Mr. Barrett Browning remembers gaining a very early elementary knowledge of anatomy from comic illustrated rhymes (now in the possession of their old friend, Mrs. Fraser Corkran) through which his grandfather impressed upon him the names and position of the principal bones of the human body.

Even more remarkable than his delight in Teadino^ was the manner in which Mr. Browning read. He carried into it all the preciseness of the scholar. It was his habit when he bought a book — which was generally an old one allowing- of this addition — to have some pages of blank paper bound into it. These he filled with notes, chronological tables, or such other supplementary matter as would enhance the interest, or assist the mastering, of its contents ; all written in a clear and firm though by no means formal handwriting.

More than one book thus treated by him has passed through my hands, leaving in me, it need hardly be said, a stronger impression of the owner's intellectual quality than the acquisition by him of the finest library could have conveyed. One of the experiences which disgusted him with St. Kitt's was the frustration by its authorities of an attempt he was making to teach a negro boy to read, and the understanding that all such educative action was prohibited.