392 BROWNING ROBERT: (1812-1889) English Poet. A.L.S., Robert Browning, two pages, 8vo, De Vere Gardens, London, 9th April 1889, to Mrs [Edith] Bronson. Browning announces ‘This will be presented to you by Mr. Alberto Ball, the gentleman whom I ventured to introduce to you…’ and continues to add that Ball has provided an ‘account of the very interesting occasion which now takes him, and the company over which he presides, to our beloved Venice’. Browning further writes ‘My recommendation is unnecessary enough - for you know Mr. Ball, his father = but too much cannot be said when so pleasant a truth is to tell as that the gentleman you will show kindness to is the son of one of the most agreeable men I was ever privileged to call my friend’. With integral address leaf in Browning’s hand to Bronson at her family home, Ca’ Alvisi, in Venice. Some slight traces of former mounting to the blank side of the integral leaf and with some extremely minor foxing, about VG £800-1200

Edith Bronson (b.1861) Countess Rucellai. A Friend of Robert Browning, Bronson and her family held a central position within Ventian Society. Ten years before the present letter was written Browning, in 1879-80, along with James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent and Henry James, had enjoyed the hospitality of the Bronson family at their home in Venice.

In another letter, published in The Brownings: Their Life and Art, Robert Browning wrote to Bronson ‘There is arranged to be a sort of expedition [to Venice] of young Toynbee Hall men, headed by Alberto Ball, the son of our common friend, for the purpose of studying, not merely amusing, themselves with, the beloved city. Well as the Balls are entitled to say that they know you, still, the young and clever Ball chooses to wish me to beg your kind notice…’