26
and returned home. To Regent Street again, by bus at 6, thence
to Mr Brown s establishment. My pull at the private door bell
was responded to by a handsome, lengthily waisted, elegantly dressed,
dark haired girl from the shop, who smiling pleasantly, piloted the
way to and an upper room, where I found Mr William Brown.
He gave me a fluent welcome, and soon his wife appeared. She is
a comely, West English lady-like person, unaffectedly amiable and
good-tempered. He married her, and the business. There are strong
traits of family resemblance between him and the other brothers, in voice,
in physiognomy, and I think in character. He was polite, supple,
and tonguey as possible, yet all the time, I d distrust of it being
mere surface; that he was a wily, glib mortal, keenly alive to his
own interest, and who congratulated himself on having wriggled himself
into a snuggish home. Mrs B he called My pet, and Mother.
I had to speak much of the brothers, of George, Alfred, Albert and
Charley. I find the chief reason why Charles change of name excited
so much interest, was that it was partially suspected he had married
a fortune. Mr W returned to this several times, and evidently con-
sidered the union a failure . The good old-maid his sister, was
spoken of with much tenderness by his wife, but he spoke of her affection
as exacting and selfish. They have little tiffs, in letters. She, left,
as it were, in charge of her brothers, by their mother s death, has perhaps
in an innocent way come to regard them as property in her affections;
they growing up, each with their several ambitions, are too selfish and too
shallow to remember the self sacrificing elder sister who devoted herself
to them, even refusing an offer of marriage for their sakes. The poor
old maid s morbid love for them meets with little consideration. Ah me!
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seven: page thirty-two |
| Description: | Describes a visit to William Brown and his wife in London. |
| Date: | 1855-02-28 |
| Subject: | Brown, Albert; Brown, Alfred; Brown, Emma; Brown, William; Brown, William, Mrs.; Damoreau, Charles (Brown); Gunn, Thomas Butler |
| Coverage (City/State): | [London, England] |
| Coverage (Street): | Regent Street |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-02 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seven |
| Description: | Includes an account of his family history and descriptions of his visits with family and friends in England, witnessing a procession for Louis Napoleon in London, traveling in Paris with his brothers Charley and Edwin, his friend Harry Price's mental illness, his journey across the Atlantic to New York on the ship Washington, the marriage of Fanny Fern and James Parton, meetings of the Ornithoryncus Club in New York, and Alfred Waud's elopement with Mary Brainard. |
| Subject: | Bohemians; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Marriage; Mental illness; Publishers and publishing; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | London, England; Paris, France; New York, New York |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
