ungrudging admission of the unequivocal power, as well as brilliant promise,

which he recognized in the work. This mutual experience
was the introduction to a long and, certainly on Mr. Browning's part,

a sincere friendship.
Chapter 6

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 chronicailment, 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.

--
* This uncle's name, and his business relations with the great Jewish firm,

have contributed to the mistaken theory of the poet's descent.
--

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 eminentcontemporary, 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 accomplishedclassic. Lord Beaconsfield

is said to have declared that the inscription 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'.
It was chiefly from this uncle that Miss Browning and her brother

heard the now often-repeated stories of their probable ancestors,
Micaiah Browning, who distinguished himself at the siege of Derry,

and that commander of the ship `Holy Ghost' who conveyed Henry V. to France
before the battle of Agincourt, and received the coat-of-arms,

with its emblematic waves, in reward for his service. Robert Browning
was also indebted to him for the acquaintance of M. de Ripert-Monclar;

for he was on friendly terms with the uncle of the young count,
the Marquis de Fortia, a learned man and member of the Institut,

and gave a letter of introduction -- actually, I believe,
to his brother Reuben -- at the Marquis's request.*

--
* A grandson of William Shergold, Robert Jardine Browning,

graduated at Lincoln College, was called to the Bar,
and is now Crown Prosecutor in New South Wales; where his name

first gave rise to a report that he was Mr. Browning's son,
while the announcement of his marriage was, for a moment,

connected with Mr. Browning himself. He was also intimate
with the poet and his sister, who liked him very much.

--
The friendly relations with Carlyle, which resulted in

his high estimate of the poet's mother, also began at Hatcham.
On one occasion he took his brother, the doctor, with him to dine there.

An earlier and much attached friend of the family was Captain Pritchard,
cousin to the noted physician Dr. Blundell. He enabled

the young Robert, whom he knew from the age of sixteen,
to attend some of Dr. Blundell's lectures; and this aroused in him

a considerable interest in the sciences connected with medicine,
though, as I shall have occasion to show, no knowledge of either disease

or its treatment ever seems to have penetrated into his life.
A Captain Lloyd is indirectly associated with `The Flight of the Duchess'.

That poem was not completed according to its original plan;
and it was the always welcomeoccurrence of a visit from this gentleman

which arrested its completion. Mr. Browning vividly remembered
how the click of the garden gate, and the sight of the familiar figure

advancing towards the house, had broken in upon his work
and dispelled its first inspiration.

The appearance of `Paracelsus' did not give the young poet
his just place in popular judgment and public esteem.

A generation was to pass before this was conceded to him.
But it compelled his recognition by the leading or rising literary men

of the day; and a fuller and more varied social life now opened before him.
The names of Serjeant Talfourd, Horne, Leigh Hunt, Barry Cornwall (Procter),

Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), Eliot Warburton, Dickens, Wordsworth,
and Walter Savage Landor, represent, with that of Forster,

some of the acquaintances made, or the friendships begun, at this period.
Prominent among the friends that were to be, was also Archer Gurney,