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 Haworth --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'.
It was soon after this time,though the exact date cannot be recalled,that the Browning family moved from Camberwell to Hatcham.
Some such change had long been in contemplation,for their house was now too small;and the finding one more suitable,in the latter place,had decided the question.The new home possessed great attractions.
The long,low rooms of its upper storey supplied abundant accommodation for the elder Mr.Browning's six thousand books.Mrs.Browning was suffering greatly from her chronic ailment,neuralgia;and the large garden,opening on to the Surrey hills,promised her all the benefits of country air.There were a coach-house and stable,which,by a curious,probably old-fashioned,arrangement,formed part of the house,and were accessible from it.
Here the 'good horse',York,was eventually put up;and near this,in the garden,the poet soon had another though humbler friend in the person of a toad,which became so much attached to him that it would follow him as he walked.He visited it daily,where it burrowed under a white rose tree,announcing himself by a pinch of gravel dropped into its hole;and the creature would crawl forth,allow its head to be gently tickled,and reward the act with that loving glance of the soft full eyes which Mr.Browning has recalled in one of the poems of 'Asolando'.
This change of residence brought the grandfather's second family,for the first time,into close as well as friendly contact with the first.
Mr.Browning had always remained on outwardly friendly terms with his stepmother;and both he and his children were rewarded for this forbearance by the cordial relations which grew up between themselves and two of her sons.But in the earlier days they lived too far apart for frequent meeting.The old Mrs.Browning was now a widow,and,in order to be near her relations,she also came to Hatcham,and established herself there in close neighbourhood to them.
She had then with her only a son and a daughter,those known to the poet's friends as Uncle Reuben and Aunt Jemima;respectively nine years,and one year,older than he.
'Aunt Jemima'married not long afterwards,and is chiefly remembered as having been very amiable,and,in early youth,to use her nephew's words,'as beautiful as the day;'but kindly,merry 'Uncle Reuben',then clerk in the Rothschilds'London bank,became a conspicuous member of the family circle.This does not mean that the poet was ever indebted to him for pecuniary help;and it is desirable that this should be understood,since it has been confidently asserted that he was so.
So long as he was dependent at all,he depended exclusively on his father.
Even the use of his uncle's horse,which might have been accepted as a friendly concession on Mr.Reuben's part,did not really represent one.
The animal stood,as I have said,in Mr.Browning's stable,and it was groomed by his gardener.The promise of these conveniences had induced Reuben Browning to buy a horse instead of continuing to hire one.
He could only ride it on a few days of the week,and it was rather a gain than a loss to him that so good a horseman as his nephew should exercise it during the interval.
Uncle Reuben was not a great appreciator of poetry --at all events of his nephew's;and an irreverent remark on 'Sordello',imputed to a more eminent contemporary,proceeded,under cover of a friend's name,from him.But he had his share of mental endowments.We are told that he was a good linguist,and that he wrote on finance under an assumed name.
He was also,apparently,an accomplished classic.Lord Beaconsfield is said to have declared that the inion on a silver inkstand,presented to the daughter of Lionel Rothschild on her marriage,by the clerks at New Court,'was the most appropriate thing he had ever come across;'and that whoever had selected it must be one of the first Latin scholars of the day.It was Mr.Reuben Browning.
Another favourite uncle was William Shergold Browning,though less intimate with his nephew and niece than he would have become if he had not married while they were still children,and settled in Paris,where his father's interest had placed him in the Rothschild house.
He is known by his 'History of the Huguenots',a work,we are told,'full of research,with a reference to contemporary literature for almost every occurrence mentioned or referred to.'
He also wrote the 'Provost of Paris',and 'Hoel Morven',historical novels,and 'Leisure Hours',a collection of miscellanies;and was a contributor for some years to the 'Gentleman's Magazine'.
