946. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, [late May–before 1 June 1804]
946. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, [late May–before 1 June 1804] *
Dear Charles
Inclosed is a draft on Longman for 40 pounds. pay yourself – & settle Ediths account with Martha.
The box came safe – but has made me rather uneasy, inasmuch as I find two sets of books imperfect, one volume of a set of French poems being missing, & one of the little Don Quixote in morocco. [1] if they were not packed up in the other box which came at the same time when both were opened at the Custom House, they must have been lost there, & the loss of the last would ruin a set worth four guineas.
Send me by coach the great Portugueze manuscript chronicle, [2] that Wynn may get it bound for me, for to read it in its present state would injure it, the covers fretting the contents – & send me off to Keswick a box from Horts [3] packed for that purpose & I believe directed also. otherwise – you will know it thus – it is flat & square, full of folio which stand are placed on their edges in the box & just fit it in depth. if you have a Dutch grammar among the loose books send it with the Chronicle. I wish Rex had sent me the water spout – & I wish he would send me a groupe of tropical trees fit for a vignette. [4] He knows how I shall be vexed by the damned work of a London designer.
I am very weary, & as usual when in London, out of humour. my whole feelings are uncomfortable. the filth & bustle annoy me more than ever. I did not think solitude could so have unfitted me for society. – thank you & Basileus for your offers of a bed – but I do not visit Bristol – it is the last place in my thoughts notwithstanding all its advantages. however you will be glad to hear that my Uncle recommended it to me for my place of residence at last. he does not know how much I want the London libraries, & I am but beginning to know the influence in literature which I should possess were I on the spot, for Longman & Rees seem disposed to follow any advice I give them.
God bless you. be content with my remittance now, & you shall have quiet & comfortable letters when I am in quiet & comfort. I have written to Lisbon, & your cheeses will be forwarded as well as they can be. do not forget three Stiltons for my Uncle next this summer. I will look for the Smiths if my way lies near the place you mention.
In the Annual I reviewed Malthus, the Hist. of the Methodists, & Ritsons Romances all with some care. this is a secret for yourself & Rex. my other articles are not worth pointing out – how many they must be you may know by the space they occupy – above 180 pages, value £86. [5]
God bless you
RS.
Georges face is dreadfully bad. he does well but the place is not permanent – & I do not think Coleridge did wisely in sending for him up.
Notes
* Address: Charles Danvers –
MS: British Library, Add MS
30928. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.
Dating note: from internal evidence, as Southey is still in London and states in his letter to Thomas
Southey, dated 1 June 1804 (Letter 947), that he is leaving that day. BACK
[1] The nine-volume edition of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616), Don Quixote de la Mancha, published in Madrid in 1798 and bound in red morocco. It was included in the 1844 sale catalogue of Southey’s library, lacking one volume. BACK
[2] Fernao Lopes (c. 1385–after 1459), ‘Cronica del Rei Dom Fernando o Noveno Rei de Portugal’, no. 3829 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library; see Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [April–May] 1805 Letter 1063. BACK
[3] William Jillard Hort (1764–1849), a Unitarian Minister and writer, an acquaintance who stored books for Southey. BACK
[4] Southey was hoping King would make designs to be used for illustrations to Madoc (1805). In the event, the poem was published with only two of the intended engravings, one of which, that of a serpent, was misplaced. For the water spout, see Robert Southey to John King, [1]–5 March 1804, Letter 904. BACK
[5] Southey reviewed, in the Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804): James Burney, A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean ... Illustrated with Charts (Vol. 1; 1803), 3–12; James Stanier Clarke (1766–1834; DNB), The Progress of Maritime Discovery, from the Earliest Period to the Close of the Eighteenth Century, Forming an Extensive System of Hydrography (1803), 12–20; James Curtis (dates unknown), A Journal of Travels in Barbary in 1801 ... With Observations on the Gum Trade of Senegal (1803), 20–23; Louis Maria Joseph, Count O’Hier de Grandpré (1761–1846), A Voyage in the Indian Ocean, and to Bengal ... To Which is Added a Voyage in the Red Sea, Including a Description of Mocha, and of the Trade of the Arabs of Yemen (1803), 48–54; John Davis (1774–1854), Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America, During 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802 (1803), 54–59; Lockhart Muirhead (dates unknown), Journals of Travels in Parts of the Late Austrian Low Countries, France, the Pays de Vaud and Tuscany in 1787 and 1789 (1803), 59–63; Charles William Doyle (1770–1842), A Non-Military Journal; Or, Observations Made in Egypt, by an Officer upon the Staff of the British Army: Describing the Country, its Inhabitants, their Manners and Customs (1803), 63–66; William Wittman (fl. 1799–1804), Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and Across the Desert into Egypt During the Years 1799, 1800, and 1801, in Company with the Turkish Army and the British Military Mission (1803), 66–71; [Ann Blund (dates unknown)], Journal of a Short Excursion among the Swiss Landscapes (1803), 79–80; Isaac King (dates unknown), Letters from France (1803), 88–90; Part the First of An Address to the Public from the Society for the Suppression of Vice, Instituted, in London, 1802, Setting Forth, with a List of the Members, the Utility and Necessity of such an Institution, and its Claim to Public Support (1803), 187; Transactions of the Missionary Society (Vol. 1, 1803), 189–201; William Myles (1756–1828), A Chronological History of the People called Methodists ... With an Appendix, Containing Two Lists of the Itinerant Preachers ... With the Last Will and Testament of the Rev. J. Wesley (1803), 201–213; Thomas Malthus (1766–1834; DNB), An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society; with Remarks on the Speculations of W. Godwin, M. Condorcet and Other Writers (1803), 292–301; William Godwin, Life of Geoffrey Chaucer ... Including Memoirs of ... John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; with Sketches of the Manners, Opinions, Arts and Literature of England in the Fourteenth Century (1803), 462–473; George Mason (1735–1806; DNB), The Life of Richard Earl Howe (1803), 499–501; Joseph Ritson (1752–1803; DNB), Ancient Engleish Metrical Romanceës (1802), 515–533; George Ellis, Specimens of the Early English Poets (3rd edn 1803), 538–542; Richard Mant (1776–1848; DNB), The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton (1802), 543–546; William Hayley (1745–1820; DNB), The Life and Posthumous Writings of William Cowper, Esq. (1803), 457–462; Peter Bayley (bap. 1778–1823; DNB), Poems (1803), 546–552; Henry Kirke White, Clifton Grove, a Sketch in Verse, with other Poems (1803), 552–554; Josiah Walker (d. 1831), The Defence of Order, a Poem (1803), 557; The Inquiry. Part 1, 557–558; William Barnes Rhodes (1772–1826; DNB), Epigrams (1803), 558; James Woodhouse (bap. 1735–1820), Norbury Park, a Poem with Several Others Written on Various Occasions (1803), 558; Henry William Tytler (1752/3–1808), The Voyage Home from the Cape of Good Hope (1803), 559; Luke Booker (1762–1835; DNB), Calista, or a Picture of Modern Life, a Poem (1803), 564; D. A. G. B. Cassano (dates unknown), Il Fiore della Poesia Italiana (1802), 562–563; Percy Clinton Sydney, 6th Viscount Strangford (1780–1855; DNB), Poems from the Portuguese of Luis de Camoens (1803), 569–577; William Lisle Bowles, The Picture, Verses Suggested by a Magnificent Landscape of Rubens (1803), 582; John Peter Roberdeau (bap. 1754–1815), Fugitive Verse and Prose (1803), 582–583; George Owen Cambridge (d. 1841), Works of Richard Owen Cambridge, Esq. with an Account of his Life and Character (1803), 583–585; Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Baroness de Staël-Holstein (1766–1817), A Treatise of Ancient and Modern Literature (tr. 1803), 643–650; Asiatic Researches; or Transactions of the Society Instituted in Bengal for Enquiring into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Science and Literature of Asia (vol. VII, 1803), 898–908. BACK
