3899. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 30 September 1822

Endorsement: 30 Sept^r. 1822./ Horsemangander
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 26. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.

Keswick 30 Sep^t 1822

My dear Grosvenor

I found your letter to day with its inclosure, on our return from Skiddaw with Sirius, being my third ascent this season. If tomorrow be favourable (which the barometer seems to indicate it will not) we are to breakfast with Tom & ascend Causey Pike, – & on Wednesday Sirius takes his departure for London to our sorrow. I shall then be left to myself, & to my needful occupations, which have been very long interrupted. – Great bodily exercise is incompatible with much mental exertion, & I am so circumstanced as to stand in need of both. I must compromise the matter thro the winter as well as I can

Have you seen a series of Costumes etched by Lewis as Illustrations of Dibdins Tour.

⁽¹⁾

If you have not, look for them & in the 25^th print, you will find as perfect a likeness as ever was produced of – John Cockbaine.

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Lewis avers it to be a faithful portrait, observing at the same time that few artists could have resisted the temptation of taking it.

⁽³⁾

It appears therefore that Nature did not break the mould in which the Perfect Taylor was made. She was so pleased with it, that she made two pers who could only be paralleled by each other, – & gave one to England another to France.

Alas Johnny is growing old & is no longer what he was in his prime. As a Taylor he must always remain unequalled, – the fair ideal of that character: but in ugliness he is rivalled by Wells Fisher the nephew & successor of poor old John Fisher:

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a curious personage in his way, to whom you must be introduced.

I have Will you tell Murray or Gifford that I have not had the last number of the QR,

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– so that it may come with the forthcoming one

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in the next parcel. I shall write to G. with the next portion of MSS.

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Meantime tell him that I have not given up James 1^st but have been preparing for him.

⁽⁸⁾

Sirius will tell you of our goings on, – of your godson, – of our Saddleback expedition & the descent of that mountain by Mrs Coleridge & how Edith-May horsemanganders Mrs Coleridge. I wish you were here to see it. Your godson has determined upon being an Archbishop, & I have instructed him that when he has attained the object of his ambitions, he may play at drafts, backgammon, & chess but that he must never play the fool. Cupn who knows that his father means to play the fool as long as he lives, does not relish the prohibition, but x is somewhat reconciled to it by hearing that he may play the fool with his Cupns if he has any. – He sees that my bells are going all day long.

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. In 1818, the painter George Robert Lewis (1782–1871, DNB) had accompanied Thomas Frognall Dibdin on a continental journey. This was documented in Dibdin’s, Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821), no. 830 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. On the same journey Lewis made drawings which were etched and published as a series of Groups illustrating the Physiognomy, Manners, and Character of the People of France and Germany, issued in parts and completed in 1823, no. 1718 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. The intention was that these could be inserted as plates into Dibdin’s Tour. Plate 25 was titled ‘Peasants of the Environs of Paris’.[back]

2. John Cockbaine (1786–1873), Keswick draper and tailor.[back]

3. George Robert Lewis, Groups illustrating the Physiognomy, Manners, and Character of the People of France and Germany (London, 1823), p. 7: ‘there are few indeed, who, once having seen the original, could have resisted the temptation to preserve his representation unaltered.’[back]

4. John Fisher (dates unknown) was the Keswick barber who also rented a room to visitors to the Lakes. Wells Fisher (dates unknown), his nephew, was described as a ‘jeweller, dealer and chapman’ when he went bankrupt in 1829.[back]

5. Quarterly Review, 27 (April 1822), published 4 July 1822.[back]

6. Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), published 23 October 1822.[back]

7. Probably a further section of Southey’s 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]

8. Southey did not write an article on the reign of James VI and I (1567–1625; King of Great Britain 1603–1625; DNB) for the Quarterly Review.[back]

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3899. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 30 September 1822

3899. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 30 September 1822

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer