3889. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 30 August 1822

Address: To/ D^r Southey/ 15. Queen Anne Street/ Cavendish Square/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 2 SE 2/ 1822
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Don. d. 4. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 30 Aug. 1822

My dear Harry

I have long been expecting to hear that you were about to set forth for Keswick; where you will do me some service by keeping up the good work which Lightfoot & John May

⁽¹⁾

have wrought upon me. When I began a course of brisk exercise with the former it required x no small resolution to persevere at the cost of so much inconvenience & pain: persevere however I did, & the effect has been surprizing. For the present my complaint

⁽²⁾

is entirely suspended, & I, who eight weeks ago could not walk to church without annoyance from it, am now as well able to climb Skiddaw or Causey Pike as ever I was.

I received a letter from Edward requesting a small stated allowance as long as he is disabled – five pounds half yearly he names from each of us. Poor fellow, if his demands were higher I should answer them: – it shows some grace that he has made so few. Do you tell him that he may reckon upon this, – & let him have it at proper times. Bedford will settle the account with you

Have you made enquiry at Millers

⁽³⁾

about the Yankee Books from Ticknor? I have heard nothing of them, & begin to be apprehensive of some neglect or foul play.

My first volume

⁽⁴⁾

will be compleated as soon as soon as I shall have received two cancels,

⁽⁵⁾

in each of which a passage of some importance has been fitted in. – Will you present it to the King? I have dedicated it to him in very few lines, containing a well-deserved compliment expressed as loosely & plainly as you would wish to see it.

⁽⁶⁾

John May will tell you that he spent his time here much to his satisfaction, & saw all the World & his Wife. I sent him round to Waswater while I went to meet Canning at M^r Boltons.

⁽⁷⁾

To my great vexation Telford came with Sir Henry Parnell

⁽⁸⁾

during this short absence, & thus I mist seeing one the men in the world whom I most wished to see here. – We have Sir John Malcolm

⁽⁹⁾

here, & Heber, & Herries, & Locker, & Feldborg the Dane. Dr Bell is here now. The poor General has had no enjoyment of this concourse owing to a frightful accident which befell young Henry

⁽¹⁰⁾

– a tremendous fracture of the skull by the bursting of a cannon. The accident took place this day month, & tho appearances are as fair as they possibly can be, he is far from being out of danger.

The sooner you can come the better, because the days are shortening upon us. I have a great deal to show you. A week here will be worth six months in London, where I am always too much hurried to enjoy any thing, – except French wines.

Our love to Louisa, & Mrs Gonne. The children

⁽¹¹⁾

I hope are well. Ours are in tolerably good plight, – but I shall like you to examine Kate about her eyes, & to give me some advice about Cuthbert

God bless you
RS.

JMay will leave <with> you a packet of pencils for Westall, which I will desire him to call or send for

Notes

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

2. Southey was suffering from a rectal prolapse and haemorrhoids.[back]

3. John Miller (dates unknown), publisher who specialised in marketing and distributing American books and journals.[back]

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

5. Cancels, new pages to replace ones already printed.[back]

6. 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]

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

8. Sir Henry Parnell, 4th Baronet (1776–1842; DNB), later 1st Baron Congleton. Parnell was an Irish landowner and Whig politician; MP for Queen’s County 1806–1832 and Dundee 1833–1841. He was later Secretary at War 1831–1832, Paymaster of the Forces 1835–1836 and Paymaster-General 1836–1841. His main interest was financial reform, but he was also a close collaborator of Telford’s and the author of A Treatise on Roads, wherein the Principles on which Roads should be made are explained by the Plans, Specifications and Contracts made use of by Thomas Telford, Esq. (1833).[back]

9. Sir John Malcolm (1769–1833; DNB), the Scottish soldier, East India Company administrator and historian. He had effectively governed most of central India in 1818–1822, but had returned home disappointed not to receive further promotion.[back]

10. Charles Edward Henry (1807–1833), the younger of Peachy’s two stepsons. The accident occurred on 2 August 1822 and was widely reported in the newspapers (without naming Henry): ‘A young gentleman, by way of saluting some friends who were taking their departure, fired off a cannon, which unfortunately burst in consequence of being overloaded, and the fragments severely fractured his skull’ (Glasgow Herald, 12 August 1822). The cannon was kept outside Peachy’s house on Derwent Island and was fired as part of the annual Keswick Regatta.[back]

11. Robert Southey, Jnr (b. 1817); Charles Gonne Southey (1819–1861), later an army officer in India; and Louisa Mary Southey (1821–1824).[back]

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Ian Packer

3889. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 30 August 1822

3889. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 30 August 1822

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer