MRS. BROWNING'S BIRTH-YEAR. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The
mistake made by your reviewer of the "Eversley" Tennyson (Spectator, December 14th) with regard to the year of Mrs. Browning's birth is still so common that it may be worth while to give the publicity of your widely read columns
to a detailed correction. The old reference-books give 1809 as Mrs. Browning's birth-year ; but they differ as to the place, some naming London, others Hope End, Herefordshire. Mrs.
Thackeray Ritchie in the " Dictionary of National Biography " says that Mrs. Browning was born at " Burn Hall, Durham, on March 6th, 1809." All these are wrong. Mr. Browning, it is clear, did not know the exact age of his wife until many years after her death, and even when he discovered it he was still in error as to her birthplace. In his prefatory note to Smith, Elder's selections from Mrs. Browning's poems, dated
December, 1887, Browning stated that Elizabeth Barrett was born on March 6th, 1806, " at Carlton Hall, Durham, the residence of her father's brother." The point was finally settled in the Antiquary of June, 1889, by Canon Burnet, rector of Kelloe, who had found the record in the register of his church :—
Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett, daughter and first child of Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett, of Coxhoe Hall, native of St. James's, Jamaica, by Mary, late Clarke, native of Newcastle- upon-Tyne, was born March 6th, 1806, and baptized 10th of February, 1808."
Coxhoe Hall is near Ferryhill, about five miles from Durham City. It belonged to Mr. Barrett's only brother, Samuel, and
it was occupied by Mr. Barrett during the building of his new home at Hope End. The delicacy of the child's health accounts for the delay of her public baptism.—I am, Sir,
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