who met him in Paris in his early manhood, took him for an Italian.
It has been affirmed that it was the emotional Creole strain in Browning
which found expression in his passion for music.**

--
* The three brothers were men of liberal education and literary tastes.
Mr. W. S. Browning, who died in 1874, was an author of some repute.
His `History of the Huguenots' is a standard book on the subject.
** Mrs. Sutherland Orr, in her "Life and Letters of Robert Browning" (1891),
(now available online) refutes these statements. -- A. L., 1996.
--

By old friends of the family I have been told that Mr. Browning
had a strong liking for children, with whom his really remarkable
faculty of impromptu fiction made him a particular favourite.
Sometimes he would supplement his tales by illustrations with pencil or brush.
Miss Alice Corkran has shown me an illustrated coloured map,
depictive of the main incidents and scenery of the `Pilgrim's Progress',
which he genially made for "the children".*

--
* Mrs. Fraser Corkran, who saw much of the poet's father
during his residence in Paris, has spoken to me of his extraordinary
analytical faculty in the elucidation of complex criminal cases.
It was once said of him that his detective faculty amounted to genius.
This is a significant trait in the father of the author
of "The Ring and the Book".
--

He had three children himself -- Robert, born May 7th, 1812,