3896. Robert Southey to John May, 13 September 1822

Address: To/ John May Esq^re-/ Hale/ near Downton/ Wilts
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 16 SE 16/ 1822
Endorsement: N^o. 228. 1822/ Robert Southey/ Keswick 13
September/ rec^d. 17^th d^o./ ans^d. 22^d Novem^r:
MS: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Charles Ramos (ed.), The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 195–197.

Keswick 13 Sep^t 1822

My dear friend

I was truly rejoiced to receive your letter from London, both for the tidings which it contained of your last communications from the Rio, & because it assured me of your safe arrival.

⁽¹⁾

The contents of your former letter, upon mature consideration I did not think proper to impart to Mrs Coleridge, because the total silence upon the subject which she had maintained towards her sister & me, & which Sara also maintained towards her cousin, implied either a want of confidence where confidence ought to have been placed, or a sense of impropriety in the affair; & also because no communication was necessary, the attachment having to all appearance been dismissed as lightly as it was established.

⁽²⁾

The influx of visitors has not abated yet. Almost every day brings somebody. I have however found time to get thro half a paper for the Q Review, & it will be sent off by this nights post to be set up by the printer while the other half is preparing.

⁽³⁾

When a guest leaves me I relapse into habitual inaction; my farthest walks since your departure, have been to the How on one side, & to Castlet on the other. Your goddaughter & I reached the latter point this morning, & sate there about half an hour enjoying a most delightful autumnal day.

The youth at the island is going on well;

⁽⁴⁾

– so well indeed that when the General returns from Netherhall I shall remind that it will be proper to return thanks for his recovery, – prayers having been put <up> for it. The General himself has had an adventure in the Lake which I will not repeat because you will hear it from Henry whenever you see him. The weather has been very stormy, & with much rain; – the other morning Cupn heard there was like to be a flood, & immediately said that he would get out his Noahs Ark. – I hear him now on the way to give me the good-night kiss.

You will be glad to hear that your visit compleated what Lightfoots had begun; & that in consequence of the exercise which I took with him first & immediately afterwards with you, I am in better bodily condition than I had been for twenty months before, – being indeed for the present a sound man. But I hardly can hope this will last till I take my journey to the south.

I look back upon your visit with great satisfaction, – & this more so because I look forward with some confidence to another, at no long interval. This is the sort of intercourse which I desire with those whom I love & esteem; & one thing which endears this place of abode to me is that I enjoy more of it here than I should be likely to do any where else. I should see you, for instance much more frequently, if I lived near London; – but in twenty years I should not see so much of you as by having you two or three weeks under my roof.

– I must not forget to deliver a message from Locker, – that he shall be very glad to show you Greenwich Hospital, – as a means of becoming better acquainted with you; – & that he would have said this himself if he had known you were about to depart when he saw you last.

And now concerning the QR. Few things would give me more pleasure than to see it in John Coleridges hands, because I am assured it would be to the national good, & to his individual comfort & advantage. I have already mentioned it to Bedford, who is in Giffords confidence, – & I now close the letter in order to mention it to Gifford himself.

Kindest remembrances from all. Mrs May I trust will compleat her recovery at Hale

⁽⁵⁾

—

God bless you my dear friend –
Yours affectionately
Robert Southey

Notes

1. John May and his son, John May (1802–1879), had visited Southey at Keswick 5 August–2 September 1822. May was deeply concerned about the fate of his business transactions in Rio de Janeiro.[back]

2. During their visit, the younger John May had become infatuated with Sara Coleridge; however, she seems to have taken the matter lightly.[back]

3. Southey’s next article published in the Quarterly Review was his review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde (1814), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), published 15 February 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]

4. 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 him): ‘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]

5. Hale Park, near Fordingbridge, Hampshire, the home of John May’s older brother, Joseph May (1768–1830).[back]

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3896. Robert Southey to John May, 13 September 1822

3896. Robert Southey to John May, 13 September 1822

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer