The writer of this letter Mary Cowden Clarke born Novello (1809-1898)was connected to several overlapping circles of literary and musical figures in the Victorian period, including notably Charles Dickens, but was also an author in her own right and in collaboration with her husband, Charles Cowden Clarke, who was business partner of her brother Alfred Novello in a very well-known music-publishing business. She published a significant Shakespeare Concordance in 1846 and in the year this letter was written published The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Heroines
The
recipient of this letter, Helen Tagart, was the daughter of Helen Martineau and Edward Tagart, the latter a
prominent Unitarian minister and considerable scholar (Linnean Society,
Geological Society, Society of Antiquaries). In the 1840s Charles Dickens
attended his London services.
The
style of this letter is self-consciously literary – adjectives, allusions and alliteration.
The content provides the explanation of why the Cowden Clarkes relocated
permanently to Nice and later Genoa. Nice as Nizza was part of the Italian
Kingdom of Savoy until 1860 when it was ceded to France.
Transcription
Addressed
to: A Mademoisellle Mademoiselle Tagart
Poste Restante Genève En Suisse redirected to Hampstead
prés Londres
Datelined:
Casa Salvi Nizza Sep. 8. 1850
Postmarked
NICE 9 SEPT London PAID mark 29 OC 1850
My
dear Helen
A
letter from Lake Leman’s shores & from you, was indeed a delight. Many
thanks for giving me so great a pleasure. I was rejoiced to find you had had so
charming a time. It must have been surprisingly pleasant, because I know you
set out with brilliant anticipations which it seems even more than fulfilled.
The “next week” you speak of promises no anti-climax; to be circling round that
grand old snow-head, for several successive days, with the freedom of a ..... [?] & the intelligence of a human being, is a glorious privilege. I’m glad
to think it is yours.
We
also have prospered in our journey. We reached Paris that same night. It is
something to be able to breakfast in the bed at Craven Hill & the next on
the Boulevard des Italiens. We speeded on so well, that we reached Aix on the
Monday night! But here was out first check. No places to be had on to Nice;
& we had the satisfaction of loitering about, idling away a whole day,
lounging by fountain brinks [?], eating an
occasional ice, finding out the deepest shade to sit in - & like truly lazy
people giving profound and lengthened attention to the subject of dinner and at
night having been in bed about one hour & a half we were aroused by the
agreeable accident of a [letter torn here] the police who came at the
extremely eligible hour of ½ past eleven to inspect our passports! Whether it was
that our roving about for the whole day in sight of the whole town without any
ostensible object but to obtain shade, rest, & a cool draught of water,
seemed to them a suspicious circumstance or us it is impossible to say.
Alfred was extremely explicit, told them his name, his pre-name, his father’s
height, his grandfather’s birthday, his great-grandfather’s dinner-hour, with
every other particular that cd. be important they shd. know about us.
We
found my dear Mother & all our dear ones well & happy to see us. The
little Italians are charming children, & made friends with their English
relations immediately; knowing them all intimately already, by name. We have
enjoyed our days intensely hitherto with all the delight that quiet pleasures
possess for us who are just on the borders of the land where the “yellow leaf”
flourishes, yet with enough of the “salt of youth” left in us, to give zeal
& keenness to our relish of happiness. We bathe in the blue depths of the “Mediterranean
flotes” [?] or rather, on its safe shelvy shore. You can hardly believe the
difference there is between such sea-bathing as this & the shivery, chilly,
gasping plunge into Brighton or Worthing waves. Here the water is almost tepid
warmed thro’ & thro’ with the glorious sun & basking beneath the soft
Italian air. After a bathe such as this,
we come in with a hearty relish for our breakfast, where a propition of grapes,
peaches, laughter & talk form the agreeable adjuncts to the substantials.
Charles reads aloud to the working party during the forenoon; & in the
evening Clara [ Clara Novello, her younger sister and a leading European
concert soprano from the 1830s; she married Count Gigliucci in 1843] either
brings the tears into our eyes with her glorious voice, or makes us shriek with
laughter by her ludicrous exaggerations & descriptions in story telling [ letter
damaged here] sometimes drily follows up some [?] of her histories with: - Fortunately,
they all know you, Clara !! [ In 1843 she was detained by the authorities
in Rome during a dispute; her jailer Count Gigliucci fell in love with her and
they married a few months later].
Gigliucci
speaks English with much more fluency now, than when first I met him, wh
greatly adds to the pleasure of his society – since now we can all join
in conversation together. Do you know that sometimes now, while revelling in
the delicious warmth of this atmosphere – the greatest exertion we can achieve
being to loll upon a sofa in a muslin wrapper eating figs – I can scarcely
bring myself to believe how a fortnight ago I was shivering in a silk gown
& endless petticoats, & actually stealing to the kitchen fire that I
might enjoy a good toasting through & through! It wants some courage to exchange the one
climate for the other; & I already find myself wincing when I look forward
to the necessity for encountering the wintry North on our return. I look up now
from my paper, & behold a blue expanse of sea & sky – nothing between
the window-frame & Corsica – all glittering & sparkling in the rich
noontide sun & air; & then I think of the damp clinging fog that will
embrace us the most ungenial welcome that will hang about us on the instant of
our reaching home & will hold us in its grasp for many many months to come;
I own I feel anything but attracted towards my Native Land – and have a “soul so
dead” as I shudder at its bare thought.
Sabilla
[Sabilla Novello, a younger sister of the writer] bids me give you her best
love, & to say she was much disappointed not to see you at Nice, as she had
hoped for the winter. My mother also, & all the family party here who know
you, desire me to add their best remembrances to your father & mother [
Reverend Edward Tagart and Helen], your sister & yourself. We were much
amused with the account of your indignation & disappointment at the
performances at Fribourg. However, the Bach treat on the Berne organ must have
compensated. We were greatly entertained by your letter, dear Helen; &
again I thank you heartily for giving me such a pleasure. It was doubly kind of
you, in the midst of such hurried travelling & so much actual enjoyment, wh
makes writing a task unless to one whose [letter damaged here] & be
sharing with us our present pleasure, & to take the next best means of
having them with us in spirit. I feel tho [?] I am writing incoherently, but if
you knew the divers conversations that are going on around me you wd hardly
wonder. Here’s little Mario tugging at my knee with an infinitude of questions
to “la Zia Victoria” [ Aunt Victoria, the child using Mary’s middle name]
there’s Giovanni chattering & Zio Carlo – there’s Alf [Alfred Novello]
& the Count talking politics. Clara & Cecilia consulting about a
pattern – Sabilla & my Mother
confabulating – the whole family a Babel that makes my head less “in a
concatenation accordingly” than cd be wished. But you will forgive the
incoherency of the writer for the sake of the pleasure she is enjoying in the
midst of so many beloved voices & faces. In accordance with your
suggestion, I shall post this letter to Geneva, where I hope you may receive it
in safety. We shall set out from here about the 23d of January, as we must
be in England by the 5th of next month. There is one consolation in returning.
There will be two Copperfields!!! [Dickens’ book was published in
serial instalments 1849-50]
With
kindest regards to your fellow-travellers & with best wishes for your &
their continuanace in your prosperous journey & safe return. I am
Dearest
Helen Your affectionate friend Mary Cowden Clarke
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