Introduction

1857 began with quarrels and misunderstandings and ended with a wedding. Joanna was utterly exhausted emotionally, and her eyes were giving her a great deal of trouble. Without Henry's side of the correspondence, it is difficult to know the state of their relationship at the beginning of the year. As with the year just gone, he evidently veered between wanting to bring it to an end and his persistent belief that, if he was prepared to wait, there was still hope. And indeed, though her letter of 16 January confirmed yet again her intention never to marry him or anyone, neither could she let him go. Their concern for each other is palpable – he worrying about her eyes (and recommending spectacles), she concerned for his throat in the wake of a very bad cold. Family problems did not help, and we learn something of Mordan's character as he veers between boredom and impatience with the endless emotional upheavals, while Matthias, a stout defender of both his sister and Henry, waxes indignant about the treatment meted out to them by their youngest brother, Bob, whom he dismisses as ‘Mamma's tool’.

For George the year was overshadowed by the death of one of his earliest artist friends, Thomas Seddon, whom he had first met in Betws-y-Coed in 1849. He had also damaged his hip again – the reason for this is described in a letter to William Allingham, dated 9 February – and on his return to England he and Joanna went to Brighton together to seek the assistance of Henry Harrap, who had done so much to help George five years earlier. This had the advantage of removing Joanna from London, where it was difficult for her and Henry to avoid each other.

Brighton was not without its cultural distractions. William Makepeace Thackeray was giving his lectures on the ‘Georges’, the last two of which Joanna and George attended. She wrote to Henry: ‘He has disgusted almost all sets down here with his treatment of George IV, which I thought only too merciful.’ They were also reading Robert Browning's Men and Women, which had been published in 1855 and, although it did not achieve the praise it deserved until after Elizabeth Barratt Browning's death in 1861, was passionately admired by the Pre-Raphaelites.