Address: To/ The Reverend Herbert Hill/ Streatham/ Surrey
Stamped: [partial] KE
Postmarks: 10 o’Clock/ DE 20/ 1822 FNn; [partial] DE/ 1822; [illegible]
MS: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, WC 224. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 355–358.
I had not forgotten Scheffer’s Suecia Literata,
(1)
Johannes Schefferus (1621–1679), Suecia Literata (1680), no. 2509 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
– but as that book is nearly a century & half old, I regretted that the Swedes & Danes should so much “contempt” each other, as xxx to prevent the union of their writers in one Bibliotheca. – The Danish is not a difficult language. I have been expecting for several years the publication of the Saxon chronicle,
(2)
‘A new edition of the Saxon Chronicle, with an English translation and notes’, edited by James Ingram (1774–1850; DNB), Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford 1803–1808 was advertised as ‘in the press’ (The Tradesman, 14 (January 1815), 55). However, it did not appear until 1823. Southey acquired two copies, nos 2593–2594 in the sale catalogue of his library.
– which is to have a grammar prefixed to it, meaning whenever it came out to set about acquiring that language: – but it seems I shall be a Dane first. If I were an idle man one of my amusements would be to fill the margin of Johnsons Dictionary.
(3)
Southey possessed a copy of Samuel Johnson (1709–1784; DNB), A Dictionary of the English Language (1784), no. 1444 in the sale catalogue of his library; and the edition by Henry John Todd (1763–1845; DNB) of 1818, ‘with some marginal notes in the autograph of the Poet Laureate’, according to the sale catalogue, where it was no. 1398.
– I find the Portugueze Ama
in my Danish Dictionary
(5)
Southey possessed Christian Frederik Bay’s (c. 1737–1809), A Complete Vocabulary English and Danish (1806) and Complete English and Danish and also Danish and English Manual-Lexicon (1807), nos 133–134 in the sale catalogue of his library; and Christian Frederik Schneider (1772–1825), Danish Grammar adapted to the Use of Englishmen (n.d.), no. 1231 in the sale catalogue of his library.
– Amme a nurse.
Augustus Hare,
(6)
Augustus William Hare (1792–1834; DNB), clergyman and writer.
whom you may have seen at his Aunts Lady Jones’s
(7)
Anna Maria Jones, née Shipley (1748–1829), widow of Sir William Jones (1746–1794; DNB). Hare was the orphaned son of her sister, Georgiana Frances Hare-Naylor, née Shipley (c. 1755–1806), and Frances Hare-Naylor (1753–1815; DNB). Lady Jones had adopted him.
told me as good a story of our old acquaintance St Antonio
(8)
St Antony of Padua (1195–1231), Portuguese Franciscan, buried in Padua.
as could have been found in Portugal. Some nobleman, I forget who, was travelling with an Italian servant who had lived many years in his service, & arriving at Padua with an intention of immediately proceeding on his journey, the servant declare that he must stop awhile, even if he left his masters service, to say his prayers to St Antonio. The master was attached to him & humoured him; & hearing that his object was to pray that St Antonio would intercede with the Almighty for him, without which he thought it impossible to be saved, – asked him what he had done during so many years in England. Oh he replied, when I am in England, I pray to God to intercede for me with St Antonio.
The Acta SS. contains <exhibits> a picture of St Antonio’s tongue as set in gold,
(9)
Acta Sanctorum, 53 vols (Antwerp and Brussels, 1643–1794), June, vol. II (1698), p. 743, no. 207 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
among the many curious portraits ejusdem generis
which this marvellous work contains.
I am now writing that chapter in the B. of the Church which contains a view of the Roman Catholic system, such as you & I know it to be.
(11)
The Book of the Church, 2 vols (London, 1824), I, pp. 283–320.
It will make some persons I trust open their eyes; – but if it does not disabuse those who chuse to be deceived, it will at least have the good effect of preventing very many from being deluded, thro their entire ignorance of the subject.
Dibdin wrote to me the other asking if I should like to continue Wartons Hist. of Poetry,
(12)
Thomas Warton (1728–1790; DNB), The History of English Poetry from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century (1774–1781). A new edition appeared in 1824, edited by Richard Price (1790–1833; DNB), no. 2986 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
– which is about to be reedited with laborious corrections & notes. My answer
(13)
Robert Southey to [Thomas Frognall Dibdin], 9 December 1822, Letter 3929.
expressed a willingness to hear what the bookseller
(14)
Thomas Tegg (1766–1845; DNB), a publisher of popular works and abridgements of literary standards. Southey did not undertake any work for him.
might have to propose. If his terms should be such as they ought to be, Gifford will see very little more of my work. But I must be largely paid, or I will they must look to some other quarter.
This last week has been odiously employed,
(15)
Southey had been writing his annual new year’s ode as Poet Laureate. This was not published until it appeared as ‘Scotland, an Ode, Written after the King’s Visit to that Country. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat’, The Bijou: Or Annual of Literature and the Arts (London, 1828), pp. 81–88.
– but I am not dissatisfied with the production. There are now some half dozen of this these task-poems by me which have not seen the light, & which, one of these days, will do me no discredit.
(16)
The following New Year’s odes that Southey had written were still unpublished at this date but appeared piecemeal throughout the 1820s and 1830s: January 1816, ‘Glory to Thee in thine omnipotence’, The Doctor, 2 vols (London, 1834), p. 207; January 1817, ‘Ode on the Battle of Algiers’, The Plain Englishman, 3 (1823), pp. 427–428; January 1818, ‘Funeral Song for the Princess Charlotte’, Friendship’s Offering: A Literary Album and Christmas and New Year’s Present, for 1828 (London, 1828), pp. 1–6; January 1819, ‘Ode on the Death of Queen Charlotte’, Friendship’s Offering and Winter’s Wreath: A L…
Ere this you will have received my μεγα βιβλιο.
(17)
‘Great book’, i.e. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). The first volume ran to 806 pages.
The last chapter will bring to our recollection our journey to Madrid.
(18)
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. 756–806, dealt with the British Army’s retreat to Corunna in 1808–1809, travelling back along part of the route of Southey’s and Herbert Hill’s journey from Corunna to Madrid in December 1795–January 1796.
The description p. 542 of Roliça is from the journal which I made one & twenty years ago, – even with the reflection at the end; – written at the Caldas while the impression was fresh.
(19)
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. 542: ‘The view from those heights is singularly beautiful, presenting just such objects as Gaspar Poussin delighted in painting, and in such combination as he would have placed in them; rocks and hills rising in the valley, open groves, churches with their old galilees, and houses with all the picturesque verandas and porticos which bespeak a genial climate; Obidos with its walls and towers upon an eminence in middle distance ..’. Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1…
– I am waiting for a Spanish Hist. of the war in Catalonia
(20)
‘On Spanish Literature, with some account of Francisco de Olivarez’, New Monthly Magazine, 10 (October 1818), 221–223, mentioned Olivarez’s Account of the War in Catalonia (1815). However, this book does not seem to exist.
to put the second vol. to press; as the first chapter must contain the movements in that province from the siege of Rosas, to the relief of Barcelona.
(21)
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), II, pp. 37–59. French forces captured the town of Rosas on 5 December 1808 after a month-long siege and this allowed them to proceed to relieve the French army surrounded in Barcelona.
P[MS torn]e is a passage about Gen. Spencer, which is erroneous,
(22)
Lieutenant-General Sir Brent Spencer (1760–1828), British commander in Portugal and Spain 1808–1811. In History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1832), I, p. 371, Southey stated that Spencer had dispatched troops from Gibraltar who had successfully prevented a French advance along the Algarve.
– I followed printed dispatches in the Parl: papers, so positive that I submitted xx my own judgement to them, which it appeared afterwards I ought not to have done. For when Sir Hew Dalrymples papers arrived, I found from his letters & Lord Collingwoods
(23)
Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood (1748–1810; DNB), Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet 1805–1810.
that this was half-blunder, half braggadochio on the part of Spencer, – who is a thorough most incapable man. Unluckily it would have cost two cancels to get rid of this single sentence; & there was so much expence & inconvenience in this that (tho neither the one nor the other would have fallen on myself) I thought it best to let the matter pass, & correct it silently in the future editions. I am not conscious of any other error; – but there are two voluntary omissions, – the one an offer on the part of the for Louis 18 & his family to the Junta of Seville, to serve in the Sp. Armies
(24)
Louis XVIII (1755–1824; King of France 1814–1824). Louis was in exile in England in 1808 and looking for an opportunity to fight the Napoleonic forces. However, in 1822 his army was on the brink of invading Spain to defeat the liberal regime installed by the revolution of 1820. It might have embarrassed him if it had become known that he had offered to fight alongside the Supreme Junta in Seville that had assumed the monarch’s powers – much as the revolutionary forces had in 1820–1823.
– which I thought it might do them some injury at this time to make public. The other concerns our own government, & is a striking instance of the baseness with which in difficult cases it leaves its servants without instructions, – for the sake of loading them with the responsibility of any failures that may ensue. The fact – is that before the commencement of the movements in Spain & during the first movements, while Sir Hew D. was in communication with Castanos,
(25)
Francisco Javier Castanos (1758–1852), Spanish General and commander of the ‘Army of the South’, the largest force opposed to the French invasion in 1808. Dalrymple was Acting Governor of Gibraltar 1806–1808.
– out of 37 dispatches, 34 of which related to these affairs, Lord Castlereagh
(26)
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769–1822; DNB), Secretary of State for War 1807–1809, Foreign Secretary 1812–1822.
only acknowledged two, & left him to act without as he thought best, – at his own peril. -
I am richly stored with materials for the rest of the war, – so that it will be smooth sailing to the end. Compared to that of the Brazilian history
(27)
Southey’s History of Brazil (1810–1819).
the labour seems nothing. The second vol. will come down to Massenas retreat,
(28)
André Massena (1758–1817) commanded the invasion of Portugal in 1810–1811. Southey did not deal with his retreat until History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), III, pp. 127–154.
– perhaps farther. I got at Zurich a German account of his campaign by a surgeon in his army, & am just German enough to make it out.
(29)
Der Feldzug von Portugall, in den Jahren 1811 and 1812, in Historischer und Medizinischer-Hinsicht Beschrieben, von einem Artze der Franzosischen Armee von Portugall (1816). Southey had purchased this on his European tour in 1817.
Love to my Aunt – the boys & Georgiana –
God bless you
RS.
