igods," she herself said, in
later life, of her early years, "and haunted me out of Pope's Homer, until
I dreamt more of Agamemnon than of Moses the black pony."

The house at Hope End has been described by Lady Carmichael as "a
luxurious home standing in a lovely park, among trees and sloping hills,"
and the earliest account that has been preserved of the little girl
reveals her sitting on a hassock, propped against the wall, in a lofty
room called "Elizabeth's chamber," with a stained glass oriel window
through which golden gleams of light fell, lingering on the long curls
that drooped over her face as she sat absorbed in a book. She was also an
eager worker in her garden, the children all being given a plot to
cultivate for themselves, and Elizabeth won special fame for her bower of
white roses.

There are few data about the parents of Elizabeth Barrett, and the legal
name, Moulton-Barrett, by which she signed her marriage register and by
which her father is commonly known, has been a source of some confused
statements. Her father, Edward Barrett Moulton, came into an inheritance
of property by which he was required to add the name of Barrett again,
hyphenating it, and was thus known as Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett. He
married Mary Graham Clarke, a native of Newcastle-on-the-Tyne, a woman of
gentle loveliness, who died on October 1, 1828. Mr. Moulton-Barrett lived
until 1860, his death occurring only a year before that of his famous
daughter, who was christened Elizabeth Barrett Moulton, and who thus
became, after her father's added name, Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett,
although, except when a legal signature was necessary, she signed her name
as Elizabeth Barrett. The family are still known by the hyphenated name;
and Mrs. Browning's namesake niece, a very scholarly and charming young
woman, now living in Rome, is known as Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett. She is
the daughter of Mrs. Browning's youngest brother, Alfred, and her mother,
who is still living, is the original of Mrs. Browning's poem, "A
Portrait." While Miss Moulton-Barrett never saw her aunt (having been born
after her death), she is said to resemble Mrs. Browning both in
temperament and character. By a curious coincidence the Barrett family,
like the Brownings, had been for generations the owners of estates in the
West Indies, and it is said that Elizabeth Barrett was the first child of
their family to be born in England for more than a hundred years.