[Footnote 5: 'India' is a slip on the part either of Browning or of Mrs.
Corson. The poet's father was never in India. He was quite a youth when
he went to his mother's sugar-plantation at St. Kitts, in the West
Indies.]

The home of Mr. Browning was, as already stated, in Camberwell, a suburb
then of less easy access than now, and where there were green trees, and
groves, and enticing rural perspectives into "real" country, yet withal
not without some suggestion of the metropolitan air.

"The old trees
Which grew by our youth's home--the waving mass
Of climbing plants, heavy with bloom and dew--
The morning swallows with their songs like words--
All these seem clear....
...most distinct amid
The fever and the stir of after years."

(_Pauline_.)

Another great writer of our time was born in the same parish: and those
who would know Herne Hill and the neighbourhood as it was in Browning's
youth will find an enthusiastic guide in the author of _Praeterita_.

Browning's childhood was a happy one. Indeed, if the poet had been able
to teach in song only what he had learnt in suffering, the larger part
of his verse would be singularly barren of interest. From first to last
everything went well with him, with the exception of a single profound
grief. This must be borne in mind by those who would estimate aright the
genius of Robert Browning. It would be affectation or folly to deny that