TO JOSEPH SEVERN1
Florence. 5 Septr 1829.
My dear Severn,
Though too late for to-day’s post, I choose to begin my letter now; if for nothing else but to congratulate you on having foiled those rogues.2 You say right, — you must beware of them while in the heat of their disappointment. Is there no method of punishing them and their coadjutors for a conspiracy? With far less trouble than you have had, I this morning proved to our English banker that his servant had defrauded Trelawny of about twenty pauls by falsifying a document, followed up by a forgery, — two pretty little offences, for either of which he might be hanged3 in England.
What you mean by my last letter’s being a melancholy one, is beyond my guess. All I know is, — I have not had the ear-ach[e], and, nothing else, as I remember, makes me melancholy. Do you mean my letter to Mrs Severn? Perhaps so, for there I made a mistake stating that the number of children born every hour was 360, when I ought to have said 3,600, as 60 times 60 can testify.4 Now certainly it is a dull matter to insist on only a tenth of the real quantum of children being born; but still it was an excusable mistake in a bachelor, and you ought not to have written me down melancholy on that score.
Miss Leach5 told me of Mrs Severn’s illness; and I am happy to hear she has recovered, and that you are no longer in fear for the child. The best consolation I can offer you both is, that those who have great pleasures must look for little pains, and sometimes great ones. Folks think not of this so much as they ought.
Here is Trelawney with as much of the papa about him as any man I ever knew. His little girl6 is clever and pretty, — and very shy; — yet she sings most loudly. She has been liable to the fever of the Grecian islands, and is easily thrown into a slight one now. Her name is Zella. He sends his remembrances, and wants the rogues to be punished. I’ve been told you can punish them; but I would not punish myself with the trouble.7
Were I not so modest I should be quicker in finding a frame for the miniature8 I have painted for you, and in sending it to Rome. The subject is a gigantic ever-green oak, with the gate of Volterra in the background; time, sunset. I am thus particular in describing the subject, lest you should mistake the tree for a pig on his hind legs, the gate and tower for a frigate in a storm, and the time for a moon light night; — you must understand it properly. I forgot (a great crime) to compliment your sposa on the drawing of her’s, which Miss Cobbett showed me. Why, Severn, if you don’t take care, she’ll take the brush out of your hand, and send you into the nursery.
I dare say you’ll think I’m leading an odd sort of life, when I explain it to you. I rise, — ad libidum; at 8 I take a mouthful of bread, and three mouthfuls of milk and water; at 12 I dine; at 2 I take tea; and I sup at 8. Every body is astonished at a man’s afternoon’s tea being at 2 o’clock, — I think I see your surprise!9 This is all Trelawny’s doing; as he, being Eastern, likes to dine at mid-day, — and I, though a Western, happen to like it too, — though I thought it an impossibility till I tried it. But there is a Mr Webster,10 with his wife here, who dines at ½ past 11, — he says that is the proper time, not 12, and that he can’t wait longer. Trelawny and I want to get into a villa, and cultivate our own flowers, fruits, and sallads. Besides, we can romp with the Contadine. T. tells me he likes West better than ever; he is getting on pretty well in London, after much despair of doing any thing; he is thin, ailing, with weak eyes, and extremely nervous. This is a bad account of him; for want of health is worse than want of commissions. He paints portraits chiefly, — of the size of your’s. Did I tell you that L. Hunt and his wife had written to me? After nine weeks I answered them;11 and quick enough too, when he had been silent for about three years. He inquires about you.
Be a good hub, and give my love to your wife.
Your’s most sincerely, Chas Brown.
8th Septr — Nothing new in Florence for the last three days. Yes, the weather is beautiful. I prophecied we should have a fine autumn, so it comes of course. Last night I was with the Cookes,12 who are very well. On Sunday I paid a visit to Landor in his newly purchased villa;13 it is really very beautiful; to walk round his poderi costs a man a mile; it is just under Fiesole. Now as I have nothing further to say, I again take leave, with a bow profound, down to the ground.
Notes
1 Above the salutation Sharp has penciled, "729-32." Address: Al Pittore Inglese / Il Sig. Guiseppe Severn, / No 22 Vicolo de’ Marroniti / Roma. Postmarks: FIRENZE; 10 SETTEMBRE. [Return to the letter]
2 Soon after Severn’s marriage, Giovanni Bartolomei, the husband of his former servant Teresa, began a court case against Severn claiming non-payment of wages on the basis of a verbal agreement made in 1823 to employ him. Severn was able to demonstrate that he had been in Venice at the time (Scott 295). The judge, however, allowed Bartolomei to change his evidence (Sharp 290). [Return to the letter]
3 In parentheses after this word, Brown has sketched a small gallows with a hanged man. [Return to the letter]
4 Perhaps a clue to the substance of the scored-out passage in Brown’s letter to Mrs. Severn, 13 Mar. 1829. [Return to the letter]
5 Jane Leach, a stalwart of British society in Rome and sister of the naturalist William Elford Leach (1790-1836). [Return to the letter]
6 Zella Trelawny (b. 1826), the fruit of Trelawny’s brief marriage to thirteen-year-old Tersitsa Kamenou, half sister of the Greek revolutionary, Odysseus Androutsos (Scott 299n11). In 1853, Zella married Joseph Olguin in Hampshire, and in the 1881 census was reported as his wife. [Return to the letter]
7 This sentence is written up the left margin of MS p. 2. [Return to the letter]
8 Present whereabouts unknown. [Return to the letter]
9 Brown has drawn a surprised face between the word "surprise" and the exclamation point. [Return to the letter]
10 Possibly Thomas Webster (1800-1886), historical and figure painter, who won a silver medal at the RA in 1825 for his copy of Raphael’s "A Virgin and Child" (Times 13 Dec. 1825: 2). [Return to the letter]
11 Brown to Leigh and Marianne Hunt, 9 Aug. 1829, but not posted until 24 or 25 August (Stillinger 278). [Return to the letter]
12 Unidentified. [Return to the letter]
13 The Villa Gherardeschi near Fiesole, "a handsome villa, gardens, and podere, — a mile in circuit," writes Brown to Hunt (Stillinger 285). [Return to the letter]