Italian. It has been affirmed that it was the emotional Creole strain in
Browning which found expression in his passion for music.

[Footnote 3: The three brothers were men of liberal education and
literary tastes. Mr. W.S. Browning, who died in 1874, was an author of
some repute. His _History of the Huguenots_ is a standard book on
the subject.]

By old friends of the family I have been told that Mr. Browning had a
strong liking for children, with whom his really remarkable faculty of
impromptu fiction made him a particular favourite. Sometimes he would
supplement his tales by illustrations with pencil or brush. Miss Alice
Corkran has shown me an illustrated coloured map, depictive of the main
incidents and scenery of the _Pilgrim's Progress_, which he genially
made for "the children."[4]

[Footnote 4: Mrs. Fraser Corkran, who saw much of the poet's father
during his residence in Paris, has spoken to me of his extraordinary
analytical faculty in the elucidation of complex criminal cases. It was
once said of him that his detective faculty amounted to genius. This is
a significant trait in the father of the author of "The Ring and the
Book."]

He had three children himself--Robert, born May 7th, 1812, a daughter
named Sarianna, after her mother, and Clara. His wife was a woman of
singular beauty of nature, with a depth of religious feeling saved from
narrowness of scope only by a rare serenity and a fathomless charity.
Her son's loving admiration of her was almost a passion: even late in
life he rarely spoke of her without tears coming to his eyes. She was,
moreover, of an intellectual bent of mind, and with an artistic bias