[16 April 1846]. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett to Browning, Robert.

              Thursday evening. 

Ah, the chesnut tree: do you think that I never saw the chesnut tree before? Long ago, I did .. a full year ago or more,-more! A voice talked to me of the “west wind” which “set dancing the baby cones of my chesnut tree”--nearly I remember the words. Do you, the time? It was early in the morning-“before seven”, said the voice!-too early in the morning for my dream to be .. because a dream, .. says Lord Brougham when he tries at philosophy, .. a dream, if ever so long a dream, is all contained in the last moment of sleep, at the turn towards waking .. so, late & not early!

No-you did not tell me of Wordsworth-not at least, after that reading. Perhaps if Hatcham should not be swept away in the Railway “scirocco”, I may see the “hill” or the “rise”