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British Library, Add MS 47888. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), II, pp. 80-82.
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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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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My letter of yesterday by a provoking blunder of the servants was left for todays post, & being sealed I could not
open it when yours, as I had hoped it would, arrived from Q Annes Street. – Make yourself
quite easy concerning money, – there will be plenty. My work here
Dear Edith you advise me still to make Ludlow in my way. My mind was made up to take the shortest road, for the round
would occasion at least a weeks delay. One day to Worcester, one day there, one day to Ludlow, not less than two there, – then there is
Wynn expecting me, & not willing to part with me when he gets me, &
from him I should have to find my way thro vexatious delays, & expensive routes to Chester & Liverpool, whereas the strait road
saves money, saves xxx trouble, saves uncertainty, & above all brings me home in three & forty hours. – If I promise
Mr Brown to take you there in 1815 when I put my great book to the press,
Thursday. 2 o clock. Q Anne Street.
Here I am, – engaged every day for a fortnight with only the exception of one. The delays about the Laureateship are at
last over. In order that every body might have a finger in the pye Marquis
Hertford chose to wait till Lord Liverpool should please to write to
him, & ask it for me. This was done yesterday, & a note from Croker
last night informed me the appointment was made. I go to Court with Croker, –
which will be like seeing the last scene of a pantomime, & being on the stage myself. The Doctor riggs me in his Court-suit. The Levee will be held either immediately after
the meeting of Parliament (which is fixed for the 2d. next Tuesday week) or perhaps before, – if there are any
changes in administration. When it is over I shall write a full true & particular account to Herbert, – as being not the least curious passage in his fathers life. – On Wednesday
next I go to the Insurance Office, – & then (including my former insurance), an improving legacy of 4000£ will be secured for the
five who are come & the nine who are to make up my lawful number of children. – I should like to see whether you look vicious at
reading this.
We go to Woburnd. meaning to stay one clear day & return the xxx
next. Then I shall remove my quarters to Rickmans, & my present intention is
to take my place in the mail for Tuesday the ninth of November so to reach home on this day three weeks, – after the longest absence I
ever xxx made, or ever again expect to make. But I have been profitably employed. My business at Streatham is compleated to the full satisfaction of the person concerned, & I suppose the
‘goodly guerdon’
Friday. Mrs Morgan is better, & I hope the danger is not likely
to return. Coleridge is gone to Bristol upon their business, he went
Thur Wednesday, & is to return the end of the week. I had not seen him for ten days before, at which he was
unreasonable enough to wonder & complain, when x if he had looked for me instead of expecting me to look for him, he
would have found that I was not in town, – & when if he had reflected for a single minute he would have perceived that, if in town,
my very minutes must needs be numbered. He means to come down with me.
We dined yesterday with Herries, where Harry was introduced to Croker. This morning I am to breakfast with Sharp, – from xx
Mark Lane I return in this direction to Norton Street, for my second sitting for the bust – I sat for hours yesterday: it is not
fatiguing, & the process being new to me was amusing. He e Smithrs Harrison.
I found the Senhoras letter on my return last night, & Mr Littletons card with it. If possible I shall call on him today, – tomorrow at the latest. – See by what scraps I have written this scrawl, & now I must set off for Mark Lane – nearly an hours walk. So if at least it should be impossible to fill up the other side of the letter when I come back I will say God bless you here.