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British Library, Add MS 30928, fols 97–98.. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), II, pp. 141–143.Dating note: the letter was begun ‘a fortnight’ after the birth of Bertha Southey on 27 March and then continued ‘seven weeks’ later, according to internal evidence.
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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You would have heard from me a fortnight ago if I had not been disappointed – the young one has proved a girl – & I believe my main reason for being sorry is that I have lost the pleasure of calling a boy by your name. A few days after her delivery Edith became very unwell, with a return of the same dysenteric symptoms which she had had two months before. she is however now well recovered, & has this evening for the first time, drank tea out of her room.
____
Seven weeks have past away since the few lines above were written, & in time we have had our share of suffering.
Herbert has had the croup & been saved from it, – but last night we lost
Emma by a violent bilious attack. – We are as well as can be expected after
such a shock, – for nothing could be more unexpected. – I had indeed oftentimes suspected there was something wrong in the childs
inside & were we at Bristol, that should have been now ascertained. Enough of this. These losses are but for a time, – this is not
the first that we have sustained, & probably will not be the last. Neither I nor my children seem made of very lasting materials, –
in fact it is very unlikely that my children should be. It is not altogether a fanciful analogy between a man who cultivates his mental
faculties exclusively, & flowers <plants> which are improved by culture in an artificial soil; – they bring forth
fine flowers, – but either they do not seed at all, – or the seedlings wither away. I often think of what Dr
Jarrold has said of pointers, – the finest of the breed hardly ever grow up.
I am daily expecting to hear of Sir Dominies marriage, which was to take place this month. He will do well at Durham, & has every reason hitherto to think himself a fortunate man.
My History is advanced in the press as far as page 336.have expected to have concluded it this week, little thinking
how my hand was to be palsied. –
I can hardly tell you how eagerly we expect your coming, – tho at the same time I hardly dare expect any thing, such is
my ever-present feeling of the uncertainty of all our hopes & prospects. Yet if it please God that we should meet – & no new
calamity intervene xxx we shall have some happy days Charles – There will be two candidates for your back within doors, –
the boat is in dock where it used to be, & the cork waistcoat shall be brought out & hung in the sun to sweeten, as soon as we
hear you & David are at Liverpool on your way. – I wish we were nearer each
other, & half repent that we are not so, yet I have rather sunk here, than cast anchor by choice, for I never
had funds that enabled me to look about, & chuse a resting place. Whether I may ever remove is very doubtful. if I do – it will be
to Bath in preference to any other place. But I have now broken ground in yonder church yard, – & to a man who has no other
freehold – even a family grave is something like a tie.
God bless you Danvers. Do not suppose me more cast down than I really am, I am more sad than sorrowful & more thoughtful than sad.