3884. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 17 August 1822

Address: To/ G.C. Bedford Esq^re/ Exchequer
Endorsement: 17. August 1822. Jaunts & Visitors
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. c. 26. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 17 Aug. 1822

My dear G.

This is the first interval of leisure which I have had for a long while, – & it is but a short one. John May & his son

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are just set off on horseback for a three days excursion to Buttermere, Ennerdale & Waswater, & I start by the stage (if there be room in it, otherwise on my ten-trotters) at two o clock for Rydale, – in order to dine at Storrs

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on Sunday, for which day & the following I am invited to meet Canning at M^r Boltons. On Tuesday I return.

The course of exercise into which Lightfoot first, & John May since has led me has produced an excellent effect in putting my bodily frame in tone. A long mornings walk I can now perform with much less inconvenience than I could walk to the Lake side six weeks ago. Yesterday we were up Causey Pike.

Herries has not appeared yet. Perhaps he may be embargoed by M^r Bolton. And perhaps Canning himself may not come: indeed I should think he would not, if the King were in town, – for it seems almost a matter of necessity that he should supply poor Ld Londonderrys place instead of going to India.

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Yet is so doubtful whether he would do more good by confuting & chastising the opposition, or evil by pursuing the Catholic question,

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that I hardly wish him to remain.

I was very much surprized by at finding by your letter that the proofs of the last chapter

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had not been sent you, as I desired: Murray is too great a man to attend to such things, – & – this is a consequence to his breach of promise about letting W^m Nichol print the book.

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The last sheet is now upon my table, & on my return I expect to find a revise of the Title page, Dedication &c. I have dedicated to the King,

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in deference to my Uncles opinion, with a feeling too on my part that there is a propriety in so doing, – tho (I confess) not without a little grudging the cost of the presentation copies. The channel of presenting will probably be by Sir Wm Knighton, – because this may be of some use to Sirius the Dog Star. – I wish you had read the sheets in their course. The volume will provoke plenty of abuse, for which I care nothing: but I think it will do more than has yet been done for towards making the real character of Buonapartes

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government, & of his generals, properly felt & understood. I think the Preface will please you.

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I have more to say to you than time will allow me to write: as far indeed the hurry of the last fortnight, & the little prospect of rest for the next contribute at this moment to a sort of confused feeling, which would incline me rather to fall asleep upon the sofa, than to exert myself in any way. – Dr Bell is here, – & Feldborg the Dane, a very amusing man. What with one & the other, guests & visitors, &c, I live in a perpetual whirl. However the benefit which I have derived in body is so very great, that it compensates for this, & for the consequent loss of time which I can ill afford. The Dog Star is coming, to our great joy. As for you, – if you do not come next year – I shall fulminate imprecations upon you equal to any in Ernulphus –

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God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. John May and his son, John May (1802–1879), visited Southey at Keswick 5 August–2 September 1822.[back]

2. Storrs Hall on Windermere, Lake District home of John Bolton (1756–1837; DNB), Liverpool merchant and leading supporter of Canning as MP for that city.[back]

3. Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769–1822; DNB), Leader of the House of Commons and Foreign Secretary 1812–1822 (he had become Marquess of Londonderry in 1821). He had committed suicide on 12 August 1822 and eventually was succeeded in both his offices by George Canning, who had been intending to depart for India as Governor-General.[back]

4. Canning supported Catholic Emancipation and had introduced a Bill on 30 April 1822 to allow Catholic peers to take their seats in the House of Lords. It was defeated in the upper house.[back]

5. Chapter 15, History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. 756–806.[back]

6. History of the Peninsular War was printed by Thomas Davison (1766–1831), rather than by Bedford’s friend, William Nicol (d. 1855?).[back]

7. History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, p. [iii]: ‘It is with peculiar fitness, as well as with pleasure, that I inscribe to your Majesty a History of the most glorious war recorded in the British annals./When the Regency devolved into your hands, the fortunes of our allies were at their lowest ebb, and neither arts nor efforts were spared for making the spirit of this country sink with them. At that momentous crisis every thing depended, under Providence, upon your single determination; and to that determination Great Britain is beholden for its triumph, and Europe for its deliverance./To your Majesty, therefore, this faithful History is offered, as a portion of the tribute due to a just, magnanimous, and splendid reign, and as a proof of individual respect and gratitude from/Your Majesty’s/Most dutiful subject and servant,/ROBERT SOUTHEY.’[back]

8. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; Emperor of the French 1804–1814, 1815).[back]

9. History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, p. [v]–vi.[back]

10. The famous curse of Ernulf (1040–1124), Bishop of Rochester 1114–1124. A part-translation from the Latin original appears in Laurence Sterne (1713–1768; DNB), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (London, 1759–1767), Book 3, chapter 11: ‘May he be cursed in living, in dying. May he be cursed in eating and drinking, in being hungry, in being thirsty, in fasting, in sleeping, in slumbering, in walking, in standing, in sitting, in lying, in working, in resting, in pissing, in shitting, and in bloodletting!// May he be cursed in all the faculties of his body! May he be cursed inwardly and outwardly! May he be cursed in the hair of his head! May he be cursed in his brains, and in his vertex, in his temples, in his forehead, in his ears, in his eyebrows, in his cheeks, in his jaw-bones, in his nostrils, in his fore-teeth and grinders, in his lips, in his throat, in his shoulders, in his wrists, in his arms, in his hands, in his fingers! May he be damn’d in his mouth, in his breast, in his heart and purtenance, down to the very stomach! May he be cursed in his reins, and in his groin, in his thighs, in his genitals, in his hips, and in his knees, his legs, and feet, and toe-nails!’[back]

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3884. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 17 August 1822

3884. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 17 August 1822

Notes

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer