Ashley MS 2535, A2536, 2538, A2548, A2550, A2551, A2552, A2553

Letters (21) from Robert Browning to Isabella Blagden; 4 Sept. 1858-19 July 1871. Among the subjects of the letters are the monument to Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Florence (19 Jan. 1863, 19 Oct. 1864), the character of his son (24 Sept. 1866, 19 July 1871), Robert Browning's reputation (19 Aug. 1865), his 'The Ring and the Book' (19 Oct. 1864) and 'Balaustion's Adventure' (19 July 1871), the offer to him of the Professorship of Poetry at Oxford (19 Feb. 1867), the Franco-Prussian War and Napoleon III (19 July, 19 Aug., 19 Oct. 1870), Walter Savage Landor (4 Sept. 1858, 11 Aug. 1859, 26 July 1862, 19 Dec. 1863, 19 Oct. 1864), Alfred Austin and Swinburne (22 March 1870), D. D. Home, the original of Mr Sludge the Medium (19 Dec. 1863), Tennyson (19 Jan. 1870), D. G. Rossetti (19 June 1870), and Victor Hugo (30 Nov. 1859). As is apparent, Browning had a custom of writing to Blagden on the 19th of each month. All the letters are printed in full in T. L. Hood, Letters of Robert Browning Collected by T. J. Wise, 1933. Also included are a letter from Browning to Euphrasia Fanny Haworth, circa 30 Dec. 1841 (A2551, ff. 95-97b, printed in Hood, op. cit., pp. 6-7), two letters from Browning to Harry Buxton Forman, 27 Dec. 1877, with envelope (f. 113), and 26 Dec. 1888 (A2553, ff. 111-112 and A2550, f. 90, printed in Hood, op. cit., pp. 181-182, 299-300), and a letter from Isabella Blagden to W. T. Watts[-Dunton], 13 June [1869-1873], asking for his criticism of one of her poems and mentioning her The Crown of a Life, 1869 (A2548, ff. 69-70). 2538, ff. ii-vii, is a typescript of the letter bound with it. 2535, ff. iii-xv, is a typescript of the letter bound with it, and f. ii a photograph of a portrait of Isabella Blagden. Ashley Library Catalogue, i, pp. 120, 133-135; ix, pp. 32-33.