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British Library, Add MS 47890. 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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Eliza arrived last week a few xxxxx hours before Edith & I returned from Lloyds,
where we had been passing a week. I went there for the sake of being idle, – the weather was uninterruptedly fine, & we were as you
may suppose always on the move. I have been perfectly well since I wrote to Rex,
bating only a little annoyance from my summer cold, which however has been very much alleviated, & often suspended by small doses
of James’s’ powderpr occasioned by eating crude roots: – if there be any diminution of strength in the stomach
or derangement in the stomach itself, it is not owing to want of exercise, for I have taken more during this <last> winter than
in any former one.
Poor George is very near his end. He is now so weak that he can
do nothing whatever for himself & is carried up & down stairs. The use of one side is nearly gone, – every day, – every hour –
his release may be looked for, yet he does not appear to have the slightest apprehension of his real state, & talks of buying new
things &c – as if all that ailed him were a temporary indisposition. He suffers little except occasionally in his breathing: – the
quantity of laudanum which he takes keeping him probably in a constantly xxxx xx xxxxxxx under its influence. You
never saw a more ghastly object than he is, – a mere skeleton, dosing in his chair. I wish the last scene of the tragedy were over. He
has been perfectly patient from the beginning, never uttering a complaint, & always saying he is better, – or comfortable, – or
easy – &c –
You will have seen by my letter to King that I break off my
connection with the Registercertain plain: however I shall make
the best of it, & suffer nothing of this kind to disquiet me. Henceforward my time will be more at my own free disposal, & I
hope it will not be less productive. I mean to recast those parts of the Register which relate to the Peninsula, & write a regular
history of the Spanish & Portugueze war: – this is settled with the booksellers; the the terms remain for consideration,
but on this head there is not likely to be any difference or demur.xxxxxx
Tom is in this part of the world: he came to me last week & went this morning
to Old Brathay. Lloyd has been
xx better of late than I ever expected to see him, – & if he can be induced to take opium regularly without scruple,
in such quantities as his own feelings dictate, if seems as if he might xxxx xxx subdue the diseased irritability to which
he is subject. He lives almost wholly upon milk, seldom or never taking animal food.
A few days ago I received a long letter from S. Reid in answer to
that which I wrote him in December last.with as soon as I have leisure.
I have learnt by mere accident from George that Mr Lunellan xxx a history of Three of King Charles’s Judges who took refuge there, & written (if I
recollect rightly) by President Stiles.r L. had several copies: pray try if you
can obtain one for me. It is of main importance to me, because my next poem is founded upon this very history, my hero Oliver Goffr
Arielrs Smith of Coniston
In the course of next month, if nothing unforeseen prevent I shall be in London. Edith-May has been had a respite from her intestinal tormentors ever since
Kings letter arrived: – that letter however has been effectual in relieving me;
& as soon as they xxxxxx renew their operations I shall commence a campaign against them according to his directions. –
We have no electrical machine, otherwise I would certainly try the experiment which he proposes – it is exceedingly promising.
They have invited me to deliver a course of Lectures upon Poetry at the Royal Institution,