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. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 117–119 [in part].
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.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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& has been used for the ampersand sign.
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It is certainly a serious matter when a mans neck is in danger. I hope however that the tumour in mine may be
satisfactorily accounted for: upon thinking the case over & over it flashed upon me that it might be a mere enlargement of the
muscle produced by position, sitting as you know I do almost continually at my desk xx & (which perhaps you may not
know) with my head habitually inclining toward the left shoulder, so as to produce extend that very muscle. (You know how
one of my fingers has been deformed by the pressure of the pen.) Upon communicating this to the Docstor
Now to the thing most x nearest to the body natural, & next in importance, to wit the covering thereof.
Whenever you can rob the Exchequer for me will you make a visit to the egregious Hyde, the Imperator Sartorum,coloured one, of what colour I
leave to be decided between him & you, premising only that if in the opinion of two such connoisseurs it be thought I can carry off
a drab I should prefer something in the drab line.
Our bells are ringing as they ought to do, & I after a burst of exhilaration at the days news am in a state of
serious & thoughtful thankfulness, for what perhaps ought to be considered as the greatest deliverance that civilized society has
experienced since the defeat of the Moors by Charles Martel.& Perhaps enough has been done to excite a revolt in Paris. But I have a strong impression either upon my
imagination or my judgement that that city will suffer some part of its deserved chastisement. – The cannon should be sent home &
formed into a pillar to support a statue of Wellington in the centre
of the largest square in London.
I am expecting the review daily.profes opinion of the subject. I could make nothing of a life of Marlborough.xxxx narration when it has some thing picturesque in its accidents, scene &c &c – which is not the case
with any of Marlboroughs. The only part which I would make valuable would be what related to Louis 14history, but the a
philosophical summary with reference to the causes & consequences of what all these mighty revolutions. There never was
a more splendid subject, & I have full confidence in my own capacity for treating it.
Take no farther trouble about Canada. The matter is settled, & the persons in question are now at Greenwich, about
to embark
Did I tell you of the Yankee pamphlett to abuse me for an article in the Quarterly which I did not write & (between
ourselves) would not have written?
Remember me most kindly to your Mother & Miss Page, – not forgetting the Mag: Rot. How stands your business with the Treasury?
I shall come to town at the fall of the year – if I can, – that is if nothing prevents me then, or sends me there
sooner. My new sister is a very old acquaintance whom I remember in arms. – her mother is the very perfection of all that is womanly. You know that when I am in
town my object is to see my friends rather than my acquaintance, – the seasons make little difference in this. God bless you my dear
Grosvenor. I wish you were here. And I wish I could look forward to the time when I had should have a house near enough
London to have one chamber in it known by the name of ‘Bedfords room.’ – Once more God bless you