emerging from his teens,
with a handsome girl who was on a visit at his father's house. But the
fancy died out 'for want of root.' The admiration, even tenderness, for
Miss Flower had so deep a 'root' that he never in latest life mentioned
her name with indifference. In a letter to Mr. Dykes Campbell, in 1881,
he spoke of her as 'a very remarkable person.' If, in spite of his
denials, any woman inspired 'Pauline', it can have been no other than
she. He began writing to her at twelve or thirteen, probably on the
occasion of her expressed sympathy with his first distinct effort at
authorship; and what he afterwards called 'the few utterly insignificant
scraps of letters and verse' which formed his part of the correspondence
were preserved by her as long as she lived. But he recovered and
destroyed them after his return to England, with all the other
reminiscences of those early years. Some notes, however, are extant,
dated respectively, 1841, 1842, and 1845, and will be given in their due
place.

* She also wrote a dramatic poem in five acts, entitled
'Vivia Perpetua', referred to by Mrs. Jameson in her 'Sacred
and Legendary Art', and by Leigh Hunt, when he spoke of her
in 'Blue-Stocking Revels', as 'Mrs. Adams, rare mistress of
thought and of tears.'

Mr. Fox was a friend of Miss Flower's father (Benjamin Flower, known as
editor of the 'Cambridge Intelligencer'), and, at his death, in 1829,
became co-executor to his will, and a kind of guardian to his daughters,
then both unmarried, and motherless from their infancy. Eliza's
principal work was a collection of hymns and anthems, originally
composed for Mr. Fox's chapel, where she had assumed the entire
management of the choral part of the service. Her abilities were not
confined to music; she possessed, I am told, an instinctive taste and
judgment in literary matters which caused her opinion to be much valued
by literary men. But Mr. Browning's genuine appreciation of her musical
genius was probably the strongest permanent bond between them. We shall
hear of this in his own words.

Chapter 4

1826-1833

First Impressions of Keats and Shelley--Prolonged Influence
of Shelley--Details of Home Education--Its Effects--Youthful
Restlessness--Counteracting Love of Home--Early Friendships: Alfred
Domett, Joseph Arnould, the Silverthornes--Choice of Poetry as a
Profession--Alternative Suggestions; mistaken Rumours concerning
them--Interest in