Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, letter postmarked 11 September 1845: 'Mrs Shelley found Italy for the first time, real Italy at Sorrento, she says. Oh that book -- does one wake or sleep? [...] Godwin's daughter and Shelley's wife, and who surely was something better once upon a time [...] the intrepidity of the commonplace quite astounds me [goes on to criticise specific passages] [...] once she travelled the country with Shelley on arm; now she plods it, [Samuel] Rogers in hand [...] I quarrel with her, for ever, I think.'