Fanny Brawne's letter to Fanny Keats, Friday 27 February 1824
Before he parted from Fanny Brawne and left Wentworth Place, Keats asked her to write to his sister, Fanny Keats. They began a correspondence of 31 letters over a four-year period.
Keats House are publishing the letters from Fanny Brawne to Fanny Keats online on the 200th anniversary of them being written. This project reveals the lives of two women living in London in the 1820s. See ‘Related links’ to read other letters. 'The journey of the letters' tells the story of how they came to be in the Keats House collection.
The letter
In this letter we find that Fanny Keats has not written for some time. We also hear more about Fanny Brawne’s friend Miss Rowcroft, whom she mentioned in her last letter in November 1823. Miss Rowcroft’s father had been appointed British Consul in Peru, but now she has ‘inflammation of the lungs’, so presumably the family joined the father later as he had already arrived in South America. Fanny encourages Fanny Keats to overcome any shyness by mixing in society to gain confidence. She gossips about others of their acquaintance, Miss Lancaster and the Davenport sisters; she also hopes to go shopping for baskets with her, presumably to make more alum baskets, which were also mentioned in her last letter. There is news about her pigeons, her mother sends her compliments, and she complains about the ‘greasy ink’ that she is using to write with. She asks for the return of some magazines and hopes that Mrs Abbey, the wife of Fanny Keats’s guardian, will allow them to go for a walk together.
Friday.
My dear Fanny
If I do not write to you tonight I shall not send you a letter for two or three weeks as I am very busy at present with some work I want finished at the beginning of next week. Miss Rowcroft is very ill, confined to her bed with inflammation of the lungs but I do not expect them to go for two or three weeks – Don’t alarm yourself about Miss Lancasters appearance, I trust you would cut a better figure than she did. You might feel shy at first (which is not that I know of her failing) but any person of sense who goes out a little can soon get over all that – dress, manner and carriage are just what she wants, a person must be a great beauty to look well without them, but they are certainly within reach of any body of understanding – perhaps Miss L. might look particularly bad that night. Don’t suppose it was a grand party there could not be above forty people and their rooms are small, but it was a very pleasant one – we are going there next week, only to a card party a piece of the entertainment I could dispense with – Margaret Davenport is rather a genteel girl and I think I told you the second sister is very pretty – Lancaster is likely to be at our house tomorrow night but I don’t know that I shall be at home – The only place to get the baskets that I can find is the bazaar dont you think Mrs Abbey will let you walk there with me? I will be with you by ten o’clock and we may be back in time for your dinner for I suppose it impossible to get off from the unconscionable hour of half past two – Did I ever think to hear of people dining at such a time in a christian country – I have got a new pigeon a husband for one of my single ladies but the other is such a beauty (they call her a dragon pouter) that I shall wait till I can marry her more to my satisfaction – The newcomer is a dragon runt – Miss Rowcroft is not in the city but if she returns there and I go to see her I shall call on you, whether I have heard from you or not – My Mother was in Pancras Lane the other day to enquire after your health for you had not written for some time and I was affraid you were ill, she saw the coachman and sent her compliments which I think it probable he kept for his own benefit – It will ever remain a mystery to me whether it is possible to read a letter written in this greasy ink, I have all but sworn at it – If you will have read the single magazines especially those with the Spanish poetry, by the time I see you I will, if you please, bring them away as I am asked to lend them to a gentleman – With compliments to Mrs and Miss Abbey I remain
yours very affectionately
F B
Let me know whether Mrs A. is likely to let you take a walk with me that I may be with you early – I shall be obliged to go and see Miss Rowcroft tomorrow but she is not near you even were you in town –
F B
Postmark: Hampstead. 27 Feb. 24. Night.
Address: Miss Keats / Richard Abbeys Esq. / Walthamstow.
Further information
‘dragon pouter’ pigeons
Later in the 19th century these were known as ‘Dragoon pouters’ because of their upright bearing.
‘this greasy ink’
Fanny Brawne was most likely using iron gall ink, the most common ink used at that time. One of Keats’s fellow students at Guy’s Hospital, Henry Stephens, developed a much superior ink in the 1830s.
‘the single magazines especially those with the Spanish poetry’
Fanny Brawne is probably referring to the ‘London Magazine’ and its series of articles on ‘Spanish Romances’ by John Bowring. These eight articles on ‘Spanish poetical literature’ appeared in the monthly editions of the magazine between April1823 and January 1824. In 1824 Bowring published ‘Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain’, which included some of the poems that had appeared in the ‘London Magazine’.