1827. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, 13 November 1810
1827. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, 13 November 1810 *
Keswick. Nov. 13. 1810
My dear Danvers
On the other leaf you will find a tolerably long selection from Gutchs Catalogue. – He is a bad vamper, – two of the books in the last importation were literally glued together, & could not be seperated without tearing off half the leather from one cover; & he is an ugly binder, – if, as I suppose, Estes Journey [1] & the Jeanne d’Arc [2] came from his workshop. – However let him brush up & letter all the books that require it, & if there be any which stand in need of binding, let them be half bound in brown calf, with nothing but the lettering on the back, – neither band, line, nor other tooling of any kind, – & a black letter S at the bottom, – one from his printing office will answer as well as if a tool were cut for the purpose. – I believe Edith will commission her sister [3] to send some thing in the box; – let the box be well corded & it then matters not how slender it may be.
We were a good deal disappointed by your last letter. Tom is particularly because – he has no hope of seeing you next summer. Rickman has lately spent eight days with me, we xx made some good marches, & he departed well pleased with the country, & satisfied that I had done well in chusing it for my place of abode.
I got this Catalogue only last night, – so that I lose no time in sending off my order. From the nature of the books, it is most likely that it will not be too late. The Catalogue does great credit to Gutch, & I forgive him his abuse of the book-stalls, – as I can no longer profit by them myself, & ought therefore to be thankful to him, – because I can only get at their treasures thro a forestaller.
Heaven knows what is become of Kehama! [4] Longman writes me that he has heard nothing of it from Scotland, & yet the printing has been finishd above these two months.
Coleridge is in London, – gone professedly to be cured of taking opium & drinking spirits by Carlisle, – really because he was tired of being here, & wanted to do both more at his ease elsewhere. I have a dismal letter about him from Carlisle. The case is utterly hopeless – that it the moral case: for as for his body, it is yet sound if he would let it be so, – but the will is so thoroughly & radically diseased, that in his case <instance> there is an actual fall of man, from which little short of a miraculous interposition can redeem him.
Edith desires to be kindly remembered. I am going on well, & up to my eyes in business
God bless you
Yrs very affectionately
Robert Southey.
| ✓ 1142 | Grotis Annales de Rebus Belgicis [5] | 14/ | ✓ |
| — 1143 | Guagnini Hist Poloniæ &c [6] | 10/6 | ✓ Sold ✓ |
| ✓ 1180 | Rewai Monarchia et Sacre Corona [7] | 7/- | ✓ |
| ✓ 1181 | Rhenani Rerum German [8] | 7/6 | ✓ |
| ✓ 1184 | Scauwenburgi [9] | 3/6 | ✓ |
| ✓ 2434 | Acc. Of Sp. America [10] | 2/6 | ✓ |
| ✓ 2450 | Allens Apologie [11] | 7.6. | ✓ |
| ✓ 2466-or 7- | Caliph Vathek [12] | ✓ | |
| ✓ 2516 | Boswells Corsica [13] | 6/ | ✓ (not the 10/6 copy) |
| ✓ 2533 | Brownes Hist of the Cossacks [14] | 6/ | ✓ |
| ✓ 2626 | Coxes desc. of Carolina [15] | 4/6 | ✓ |
| ✓ 2779 | Godfrey of Bulloigne [16] | 7-6 | ✓ |
| ✓ 2883 | Hutchinsons Hist of Massachusets [17] | 6/ | ✓ |
| ✓ 3066 | Midons Hist of Masaniello [18] | 5/ | ✓ |
| ✓ 3081 or 2 | Missons Travels & Voyage [19] | 3/ ✓ | 16/ ✓ |
| — 3410 | Valencia Campaign [20] | 2/6 sold/ | |
| ✓ [21] 3531 | Biograph: Anecdotes [22] | 7/ | ✓ |
| — 4442 | Hist of Rosicrucian Doctrine [23] | 6/ sold/ | |
| ✓ 5994 | Wottons Leges Wallicæ [24] | 1_1 | ✓ |
| — 6287 | Amadis [25] | 5/ sold/ |
Notes
* Address: To/ Charles Danvers Esqr/ Bristol
Endorsement: 23d Novr. 1810/ 23 Nov
MS: Huntington Library, HM 12300 (letter); British Library, Add MS
30928 (list of books and address leaf). ALS; 3p. (Huntington 2p; British Library 1p.)
Unpublished.
Dating note: dating from endorsement. BACK
[1] Charles Este (1753–1829), A Journey in the Year 1793: Through Flanders, Brabant, and Germany, to Switzerland (1795); Southey’s copy was no. 1010 in the sale catalogue of his library. BACK
[2] Probably Nicolas Lenglet Du Fresnoy (1674–1755), Histoire de Jeanne d’Arc (1775); Southey’s copy was no. 868 in the sale catalogue of his library. BACK
[3] Either Eliza or Martha Fricker. BACK
[5] Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), Annales et Historiæ de Rebus Belgicus (1657); no. 1202 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[6] Alessandro Guagnini (1538–1614), Sarmatiae Europae Descriptio, Quae Regnum Poloniae, Samogitiam, Russiam, Massoviam, Prussiam, Pomeraniam, Livioniam, et Moschioviae, Tartariaeque partem complectitur (1581). BACK
[7] Petro De Rewae (1568–1622), De Monarchia et Sacra Corona Regni Hungariae (1659); no. 720 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[8] Beatus Bildius Rhenanus (1485–1547), Rerum Germanicarum Libri Tres (1551); no. 2396 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[9] Willem Snouckaert van Schauburg (1518–1565), De Republica, Vita, Moribus, Gestis etc, Imperatoris Quinti Caroli (1559); an edition of 1596 is no. 2919 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[10] Possibly John Campbell (1708–1775; DNB), Account of the Spanish Settlements in America (1762). BACK
[11] Cardinal William Allen (1532–1594; DNB), An Apologie and True Declaration of the Two English Colleges in Rome and Rhemes against Certain Sinister Information Given Up Against Them (1581); no. 32 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[12] William Beckford (1760–1844; DNB), An Arabian Tale, Caliph Vathek (1786); no. 144 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[13] James Boswell (1740–1795; DNB), Account of Corsica (1768); no. 122 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[14] Edward Brown (1644–1708; DNB), A Discourse of the Original Countrey, Manners, Government and Religion of the Cossacks (1672); no. 127 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[15] Daniel Coxe (1640–1730; DNB), A Description of the English Province of Carolina (1722); Southey owned an edition of 1727, no. 590 in the sale catalogue of his library. BACK
[16] Torquato Tasso (1544–1595), Godfrey of Bulloigne, or the Recovery of Jerusalem (1687); no. 2779 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[17] Thomas Hutchinson (1711–1780; DNB), History of Massachusetts Bay (1764); Southey owned an edition of 1764, no. 1266 in the sale catalogue of his library. BACK
[18] Francis Midon (fl. 1720s), The Remarkable History of the Rise and Fall of Masaniello (1729). BACK
[19] François Maximilien Misson (c. 1650–1722), A New Voyage to Italy (1695); Southey owned an edition of 1784, no. 1965 in the sale catalogue of his library. BACK
[20] Possibly John Freind (1675–1728; DNB), An Account of the Earl of Peterborough’s conduct in Spain, chiefly since the raising of the siege of Barcelona, 1706. To which is added the Campaign of Valencia. With original papers (1706). BACK
[21] Throughout this list ✓, ✓ and ‘sold’ inserted in another hand, presumably to record the books Danvers managed, or did not manage, to purchase. BACK
[22] John Adolphus (1768–1845; DNB), Biographical Anecdotes of the Founders of the French Republic (1797); no. 250 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[23] Possibly Nicolas-Henri-Pierre Montfaucon de Villars (1635–1673), The Count de Gabalis: being a diverting history of the Rosicrucian doctrine of spirits (1670). BACK
