Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Rev. Theodore Parker (Hazard Diary 133)

Transcriber’s note: Part of this page (untranscribed) lists expenses of JPH’s time in London, February, 1859. The following paragraph is at lower right, and the last lines at bottom left.  These may have been added in 1890, when JPH reviewed and made notes in the diary. JW

During one of the seasons I spent in Rome, I became acquainted with the Poetess, Mrs. Robert Browning, a most interesting and interesting woman, and most remarkable eyes. She was in feeble condition of health and rarely ventured out of her house. I usually spent an hour every day with her.

After I returned to America I received a letter from her in which she desired a photograph of me.  She died very shortly thereafter.

Rev'd Theodore Parker used to visit her also, who was one of my most intimate friends, until his untimely death. We used to walk together in Rome, every pleasant day. He died at Florence during that same season: with exception of a clerical friend of his, I was the only person who was invited to his funeral. We had been friends for a long time, and his spirit came to me in my room only two nights after his burial, and he pounded on a table with a degree of noise that implied a carpenter's wooden mallet.

Soon after his death he also came to my room, a very large one in a Hotel I was stopping at in a town West and about 30 miles from Florence, I think, when he told me his wife in England--I think it was--and [illegible] take steamer for the United States etc. etc. I did not think this was possible. When I returned to America I called to see his widow in Boston, and told what he had said to me. She confirmed the content of his statement. 

Neither Mr. Parker nor his wife were spiritualists but Mr. Parker fell interested in the subject and would have investigated the subject--he told me--if he had time. 

Transcribed by Jessica Wilson