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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. d. 110. ALS; 4p. . Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 342–343 [in part].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Ian Packer and Lynda Pratt
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So long a time had elapsed without my hearing from you or by any accident of you, that I began to fear what might have
been the cause of this long silence, & was really afraid to enquire. I am very sorry that Mr Bushhe or never heard a more judicious one. The account
which he gave you of my way of life is not altogether correct. – I have no allotted quantum of exercise, – but, as at Oxford, sometimes
go a long while without any, & sometimes take walks which would try the mettle of a younger man. And a great deal more of my time
is employed in reading than in writing; – if it were not, what I write would be of very little value. But that I am a close student is
very true, & such I shall continue to be as long as my eyes & other faculties last.
You must apply in time if you design to place your son at
Oriel, – it is now no easy matter to obtain admission there, nor indeed at any College which is in good reputation.the Apostles.the Apostles’ were.xxxx even doubtful whether if I
were an undergraduate now, I should be permitted to try my skill in throwing stones for the pleasure of hearing them knock against your
door. Seriously however, altered as the College is, there would be an advantage in sending your son there, where you have left a good
name & a good example. Poor Thomas Howe I believe led but a melancholy life
after he left College, without neighbours, without a family, without a pursuit, he must have felt dismally the want of his old routine,
& sorely have missed his pupils, the Chapel Bell, & the Common Room. A Monk is much happier than an old fellow of a College who
retires to reside upon a x country living. And how much happier are you at this day, with all the tedium which your daily
occupation must bring with it, than if you had obtained a fellowship, & then waited twenty years for preferment.
It has pleased God to give me another son, – born in
February last. My youngest child being more than seven years old I had ceased to
consider such an event as anyways probable. & now I build as little upon hope as nature will allow me. xx The
child is doing well, – the mother has had a succession of serious complaints, –
from which I trust she is now recovering, but still far from being in good health. The four girlsr Bush’s antagonist at chess – just such a chess player as I was, with a hawks eye for the
game, & a greyhounds speed.
I am upon the eve of compleating the History of Brazil, – the greatest labour of my life. the last chapter is in the
press,th year of my age. My father died at 48, my mother at 50. – You I believe are about two years my senior. How many of our
contemporaries have we outlived! It is five & twenty years since we saw each other last. Every body else whom I cared for in this
world I have seen somewhere or other in that interval, & most of them many times. But I have both the hope & the intention of
seeing you, whenever I can make time for it.
What the question was concerning my god daughterrexxxxxx
remember, you are under my displeasure until you write again. Give my love to her meantime, & tell her we shall not always remain
strangers. Present my best wishes to Mrs Lightfoot,