3844. Robert Southey to Nicholas Lightfoot,22 May 1822
Address: To/ The Reverend N Lightfoot./ Crediton. – / Devonshire
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Endorsement: May-22
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. d. 110. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.
Keswick. 22 May. 1822.
The pleasure which I always feel in receiving a letter from you is in the present case somewhat abated by finding that you did not receive my last reply. For certainly I wrote one, & tho its loss on the way is of no other consequence, yet I am sorry to think I should have so long seemed guilty of neglect towards an old friend whom I often think of, & sometimes see in a dream. – Be assured that no letter of yours will ever long remained unanswered by me, while I am able to answer it.
In the month of July I shall be, God willing, where I am now, – that is to say, where I like best to be, – at home, in the quiet & steady exercise of my vocation. I wish you would be persuaded to pass that month with me, & take some delightful excursions among these Lakes & Mountains, while we are yet able to enjoy them. I know not what alteration time may have made in you, but for myself I can feel that eight & twenty years which have gone by<elapsed> since you & I shook hands at our last parting, have left very perceptible effects upon my earthly part. Some of the strength of manhood, & all the enterprize of youth are gone. I should be very unwilling now to walk the whole of a long summers day. Yet on the whole there are probably few men in better trim at the completion of their 48th year. Come then while it is yet in my power to show you that I can handle an oar upon Derwentwater, as well as I ever did upon the Isis. All that I learnt at Oxford was to row & to swim.
My old friend Wynn is at last where he ought to be, high in ad office.
The patronage which he possesses is I suppose considerable: of course it is confined to India, but in all such things there must be a way of accommodation by exchange, – for instance, it might suit the Foreign Secretary to ask him for a Writership,
– & let him in return nom recommend to the next Consulship which might be vacant. I am speaking, not from knowledge, but from what may fairly be presumed. Phillimore owes his appointment to him
(I dare say you remember him at Christ Church,) & probably Peckwell also, who is now Sir Robert Blosset.
But I believe the perpetual plague of solicitation which patronage always draws after it, makes it a dear purchase.
My brother Edward was in London last year for some weeks: he thought himself very ill, & went there to be under my brother Henrys care, who is a physician. He wrote to me when he left town, having been restored to health, & I have not heard of him since: There is no possibility of rescuing him from the way of life which he has chosen for himself; – & all that we can do is to assist him when he is in need. The best thing I can say of him is that is not forward to call for assistance.
If I have ever felt any thing like regret at having been deprived of the property which ought to have been mine,
it is because that property would have brought me into the West of England, & fixed me there, within half a days journey of you. I shall find my way to you, next year perhaps, when I must visit London; – but I hope you will let me see you here first, where there is so much to be seen, that if you travelled hither x merely to see the country, you would think the labour well bestowed I should have some pride in showing you my books, & much pleasure in introducing my wife & children to you. They are indeed all children as yet, except the eldest, who has just completed her 18th year. She is at Harrogate at present, for her health, & I hope the purpose of her journey has been answered. Next week we expect her home. I am truly obliged to you & Mrs Lightfoot,
for wishing to see her, or any of her sisters. My little boy is little more than three years old; so that if he lives to grow up, & I to see it (how many chances are there in the way of both!) I shall be an old man before he is a young one. Here you have a blessing which has not fallen to my lot. I am glad to hear so good an account of your eldest son; – he, I trust, will find his way here some long vacation. Is it your wish that he should look to advancement in the University, – or that he should assist you, & take your place, whenever you feel weary of it?
I have often thought how much happier both you & I have been than if we had obtained fellowships at Balliol, & risen in due course of years to all the dignity of xxxx great wigs. How many years of domestic enjoyment should we have lost! – & what is there in this world which can compensate for them! – I have a book in hand which will contain my speculations upon the progress & prospects of society.
& I have another, which will appear some time before it, containing a view of our Ecclesiastical History,
written in the hope of doing <some> service to the rising generation. Both will procure me some of that abuse to which I have long been accustomed; & I hope & believe that for the same reason, you will like them both, when they reach you. God bless you my dear friend. Present my best regards to Mrs Lightfoot – & my goddaughter,
– & tell me that you will spend your midsummer holydays here -
yrs affectionately
R Southey.
I send this direct, rather than risk the chance of a second miscarriage by inclosing it for a frank.
