Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/284

 ttOTES BY THE WAY.

��Death of John

Kenyon.

��Mrs.

Browning's dog Flush.

��' Westward

Ho ! ' and

' Aurora

Leigh.'

��On the 5th of January, 1839, The Athenaeum contained an obituary notice of her. This was followed three weeks later by Mrs. Browning's ' L. E. L.'s last Question,' *

Do you think of me, as I think of you ?

In 1856. on the death of her cousin John Kenyon, Mrs. Browning came into a legacy of lO.OOOZ.

On the 24th of March, 1866 (' N. & Q.,' 3 S. ix. 248), Noell Radecliffe states that Mrs. Browning's first poem was " ' The Battle of Marathon,' in the metre of Pope's Homer," seventy- two pages, and divided into four books. The title-page says that it was " printed for W. Lindsell, Wimpole Street, Cavendish Square, 1820."

Mr. T. Westwood on the llth of January, 1873 (4 S. xi. 29), has an interesting note in reference to Mrs. Browning's dog Flush, and quotes some letters he had received from her during 1845 in reference to this " dog famous in song." The dog was the gift of " her dear and admired friend Miss Mitford." " Flush," Mrs. Browning writes :

' ' loves me to the height and depth of the capacity of his own nature ; if I did not love him, I could love nothing. Besides, Flush has a soul to love. Do you not believe that dogs have souls ? I am thinking of writing a treatise on the subject, after the manner of Plato's famous one."

The letter concludes thus :

" I live in London, to be sure, and except for the glory of it, I might live in a desert, so profound is my solitude, and so complete my isolation from things and persons without. I lie all day, and day after day, on this sofa .... Domestic tenderness can and ought to leave nobody lamenting. Also God's wisdom, deeply steeped in His Love, is ... .as far as we can stretch out our hands.

On the 8th of March following a note appears from Mr. West- wood (4 S. xi. 191) on the " Shadow " in the poem ' Romaunt of Margret,' first published in 1836 in The New Monthly Magazine.

On the llth of December, 1875, over the signature of Annie Proctor, a curious coincidence is noted (5 S. iv. 465) :

" In Kingsley's ' Westward Ho ! ' and in Mrs. Browning's ' Aurora Leigh ' the hero of each tale is ' sacrificed on Hymen's altar,' in con- sequence of both of them losing their eyesight, at the latter end of the book, in fearful though diverse accidents ; both of the heroes rejoice in the name of Leigh."


 * L. E. L.'s poem ' Night at Sea ' :

'Tis night, and overhead the sky is gleaming,

Thro' the slight vapour trembles each dim star ; I turn away my heart is sadly dreaming Of scenes they do not light, of scenes afar. My friends, my absent friends ! Do you think of me, as I think of you ?

' Life and Literary Remains of L. E. L.,' by Laman Blanchard, vol. i.

p. 191.

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