3777. Robert Southey to John Murray [fragment], 5 January 1822

Address: To/ John Murray Esq^re
Endorsement: 5 Jan 1822/ R. Southey
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 42552. AL; 3p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 5 Jan^y. 1822

My dear Sir

I send you four chapters of the Book of the Church.

⁽¹⁾

Do you determine whether to print it in two volumes the size of Nelson,

⁽²⁾

– or in one octavo; – if you prefer the latter, let the page be the size of Dobrizhoffer.

⁽³⁾

If I have any choice, it is in favour of the foolscap size, because it would then range with the greater part of my other works. But you will decide as you think best.

There are two books which I ought to have at hand for some of the ensuing chapters, – Berringtons Hist. of Henry 2.

⁽⁴⁾

& Dodds Church History,

⁽⁵⁾

– both Roman Catholic works. It is doubly necessary for me to do the Catholicks the amplest justice when the facts are in their favour, because I shall strike them so severe a blow.

[MS missing]

Perhaps I ought to tell you what the sale of Wesley

⁽⁶⁾

has been. 2500 copies had been sold at midsummer last.

[remainder of MS missing]

Notes

1. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824). It was published in two demy octavo volumes. [back]

2. The first edition of Southey’s Life of Nelson (1813) was published in two foolscap octavo volumes. [back]

3. Sara Coleridge, An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay (1822), a translation of Martin Dobrizhoffer (1717–1791), Historia de Abiponibus Equistri,Bellicosaque Paraquariae Natione (1784), no. 844 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, was published in three demy octavo volumes. [back]

4. Joseph Berington (1743–1827; DNB), The History of the Reign of Henry the Second, and of Richard and John, his Sons; With the Events of the period, from 1154 to 1216. In which the Character of Thomas a Becket is vindicated from the Attacks of George Lord Lyttelton (1790). [back]

5. Charles Dodd (1672–1743; DNB), Church History of England: from the Commencement of the Sixteenth Century to the Revolution in 1688 (1737–1742). [back]

6. Southey’s The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (1820). [back]

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Notes

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven