3885. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 17 August 1822
MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4813D. ALS; 2p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 323–324.
I am setting off, not very willingly, to meet Canning at Mr Boltons,
where he is expected tomorrow, – if his plans are not changed by Ld Londonderrys unhappy death.
– It has often appeared wonderful to me that any mind or body can endure the perpetual wear & tear of ministerial business in England. That business would be sufficient for any human capacity, even without the House of Commons: & I am less surprized at an instance like his, of over-excitement, than that instances of insanity so produced, are not more frequent, – especially in minds which have little or no religious principle to regulate them.
What a blessing is tranquillity! I am so accustomed <to> it, that any thing which interrupts my ordinary course of life seems a change for the worse, & I do not even leave home for a couple of days on an occasion like this, without reluctance. During the last month I have taken a great deal of exercise, to the material improvement of my health; – first with my old friend Lightfoot, & lately with John May. We have been mountaineering in all directions; & I shall have another weeks work of the same kind on my return. The sensible strength which I have gained must compensate for a loss of time, which otherwise I could not afford.
My first volume of the war is finished, – the last proof sheet is now on the table before me. I have dedicated it to the King.
Whether Murray means to delay the publication till the winter I know not; – this is his concern, & I am perfectly indifferent about it. – One of the first things which I shall do will be to resume the Tale of Paraguay,
& go on with it, resolutely & doggedly, till it is compleated. This I must do, because my Ways & Means require it.
But I am interrupted & must close my dispatches
God bless you
RS.
