3815. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 23 March 1822

Endorsements: 23. March 1822; 23 March 1822
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 26. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.

My dear G

Pray send me the rest of the clean sheets

as soon as you can, for I really want to refer them, & cannot begin my next chapter till I see how the narrative broke off in one of the preceding ones.

I will send you in my next a fair piece of handwriting for your friend Hawker,

⁽²⁾

to whom I feel myself very much obliged, & with it I will return his Sp mss.

Last week I was at Rydal, – while you were at Hastings. But remember you that mountain-air is of approved efficacy for you. I have strong beer for you, – & toasted cheese, Miss Page must taste Edith Mays wines, & instruct her how to mend them in the next brewing.

I have been working hard upon Sir Hew Dalrymples papers. – It is only the last Chapter

⁽³⁾

which is to go to Courtenay; – & I apprehend that this chapter will not vary in any material point from the narrative as it now stands in the Ed. Ann. Register

⁽⁴⁾

subsequent materials have given me little to add & I do not know that there is any thing to alter

All well thank God –

God bless you
RS.

23 March 1822

Notes

1. Proofs of the first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]

2. Major-General Samuel Hawker (1763–1838), who had served in the Peninsular War 1808–1811 as commander of the 14th Light Dragoons and made a number of sketches in Spain. Westall wished to use Hawker’s sketches for A Series of Views of Spain and Portugal, to Illustrate Mr. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War; Drawn on Stone by W. Westall, A.R.A., from Sketches by General Hawker, Mr. Locker, Mr. Heaphy, &c. Part I, containing Eight Views, illustrating Vol. I (1823). These pictures could be inserted into the first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]

3. Chapter 15, History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. 756–806. This concerned the retreat to Corunna in 1808–1809, in which Courtenay had participated.[back]

4. Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1808, 1.1 (1810), 431–459.[back]

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The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven