turnpike--in which case, a _miss_ is certainly not as _bad_ as
a _mile_. May Place is to be vacated in May, though its present
inhabitants do not leave Malvern. I mention this to you, but pray
don't _re-mention_ it to anybody. The rent is 15£. Mr. Boyd[9] will
not be angry with me for not going to see him sooner than I can. At
least, I am sure he ought not. Though you are all kind enough to wish
me to go, I always think and know (which is consolatory to everything
but my vanity) that no one can wish it half as much as I myself do.

Believe me, dear Mrs. Boyd, affectionately yours,

E.B. BARRETT.

[Footnote 8: Octavius, her youngest brother.]

[Footnote 9: Hugh Stuart Boyd, the blind scholar whose friendship with
Elizabeth Barrett is commemorated in her poem, 'Wine of Cyprus,'
and in three sonnets expressly addressed to him. He was at this time
living at Great Malvern, where Miss Barrett frequently visited him,
reading and discussing Greek literature with him, especially the works
of the Greek Christian Fathers. But to call him her tutor, as has more
than once been done, is a mistake: see Miss Barrett's letter to; him
of March 3, 1845. Her knowledge of Greek was due to her volunteering
to share her brother Edward's work under his tutor, Mr. MacSwiney.]


The fear 1832 brought a great change in the fortunes of the Barrett
family, and may be said to mark the end of the purely formative period
in Elizabeth Barrett's life. Hitherto she had been living in the home
and among the surroundings of her childhood, absorbing literature