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Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, KESMG.1996.5.59. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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We have been very long, & somewhat impatiently looking for news of you, & certainly had I thought a letter
would have reached you in time I should have written to dissuade you from trying Durham, & urge you to take Whitehaven in
preference – I have learnt that Durham is a purse-proud priestly place, – where great entertainments must be given, & a great stile
of living is necessary to succeed at all, & Fenwick
Fearons& change of air,
– & you to us for fresh water, & mountain air. I say this on the supposition that you will soon find Durham a bad post. There
is no physician near Whitehaven except an old apothecary at Egremont or thereabouts who has taken a fancy to the name of Doctor, &
gone to Scotland for it. Perhaps you may take wing & reach Keswick before Tom & I start.
Arthur Aikin wants the books you have in hand. the historical first – & so
<on> in the order of chapters. I have been obliged to do Joinville myselfxxx another man, well known to the public, so as to cheat the
public with a belief out that they are purchasing one of his works, – for this Davis is the author of a novel called the
Post Captain which you may see advertised at this time as Dr Moores.
Now that the last of Chattertons family is dead, you may in this review speak-out, & say what I could not in the
edition of his works. There was a madness in his family. Mrs Newtonhad th just came in time, to preserve Mrs N. from want in her last sickness, & procure for
<her> all the comforts which were to be procured. Do not mention me without mentioning Cottle also, – it was upon him that most of the labour latterly devolved, & the heraldic
remarks – which are decisive of the controversy – are his –. If you say any thing about the controversy here is a remark – or rather
discovery of Rickmans which will figure in the argument. The pieces which he
produced as originals are in an impossible hand writing: in the twelve lines of the Account of Wm Cannings feaste is written in above twenty different ways – no
man ever could have done this unless he had been trying to write an uncouth hand. – When I showed Rickman the fac-simile he said – give me <let me look at> this – I shall
make find out something here, & in a minutes time – he cried out Ah-ha! – a rogue! – took out his pencil & traced
all the varieties of this letter, – there said he – theres proof of the forgery. This is quite characteristic of Rickman. Speak of this <argument> as the argume discovery of a man who never
examines any subject without throwing new light upon it. It is my I am certain
know that Rickman has found out more in
Homer & Herodotus than all the commentators put together. – Lose no time in getting thro your reviewing, – I am in bodily fear of a
fresh application about it by every post. – I will get you your money as soon as I reach London – we start as soon as Edith is safe in her bed, – & this is an event of which I am in daily expectation.
Tom parts from me at Penkridge & goes
to Bristol – to put himself under King – his funds are low, – for there is no news of
the Mercury,Mercury by HMS Hippomenes in the Caribbean.receive welcome you, & neice to play with, a nephew to top, & a young onewill can have to give it one so young. I will go with you to
look for lodgings when I return, – & you shall show yourself at Netherhall at
Irton,
If you do any thing for the Athenæum,post, which will be cheaper than
by parcel. – Your letters give proof of the best requisite for good writing, – & I am certain that if you settle near enough to me
to draw with upon my library with facility, – & upon me for any assistance which it may be in my power to give, – you
may very soon make as much money by literature as I do – which God knows is not very much, – but is enough to keep a comfortable house
over my head. Some ways & means were pointed out in my last letter, – that about the Romances is very feasible, – I shall write as
soon as there is any family news – meantime you may conclude that I am very busy with the Tapuyas the Tupinambas, the Tupinaes, the
Tupiniquins, the Tamoyos, the Guarames, the Margaias, the Payaguais, the Carios, the Xarayes
I do not remember to have heard the Imperial talk of Durham.
N.B. It is an act of great self denial on my part to avoid putting under the name of Mrs Bungay (if there be
such a queer b––) & so making the direction compleat.