Material from the Romantic Circles Website may not be downloaded, reproduced or disseminated in any manner without authorization unless it is for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and/or classroom use as provided by the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended.
Unless otherwise noted, all Pages and Resources mounted on Romantic Circles are copyrighted by the author/editor and may be shared only in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Except as expressly permitted by this statement, redistribution or republication in any medium requires express prior written consent from the author/editors and advance notification of Romantic Circles. Any requests for authorization should be forwarded to Romantic Circles:>
By their use of these texts and images, users agree to the following conditions:
Users are not permitted to download these texts and images in order to mount them on their own servers. It is not in our interest or that of our users to have uncontrolled subsets of our holdings available elsewhere on the Internet. We make corrections and additions to our edited resources on a continual basis, and we want the most current text to be the only one generally available to all Internet users. Institutions can, of course, make a link to the copies at Romantic Circles, subject to our conditions of use.
Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, WC 197. ALS; 2p. . Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 38–41 [in part].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Ian Packer and Lynda Pratt
All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.
Bertha, Kate & Bel, you have been very good girls, & have written [MS obscured] I was much pleased. This is the
last letter which I can write in return; & as I happen to have a quiet hour to myself, here at Streatham, on Monday noon, I will employ that hour in relating to you the whole history &
manner of my being Ell-ell-deed at Oxford by the Vice Chancellor.
You must know then that because I had written a great many good books, & more especially the Life of Wesley,r
Heber, that the University of Oxford, were desirous of showing me the only mark of honour in their power to bestow, which was
that of making me an L. L. D. that is to say, a Doctor of Laws.
Now you are to know that some persons are ell-ell-deed every year at Oxford at the great annual meeting which is called
the Commemoration. There are two reasons for this: first that the University may do itself honour, by bringing persons of distinction
to receive the degree publicly as a mark of honour; & secondly that certain persons in inferior offices may share in the fees paid
by those upon whom the ceremony of ell-ell-deeing is performed. For the first of these reasons the Emperor Alexander was made a Doctor
of Laws at Oxford, & the King of Prussia, & old Blucher, & Platoff.
The ceremony of ell-ell-deeing is performed in a large circular building called the Theatre,
When the Theatre is full the Vice Chancellor & the Heads of Houses & the Doctors enter; those persons who are
to be ell-ell-deed remain without in the Divinity schoolsr Phillimore went before, & made a long speech in Latin, telling the Vice Chancellor and the dignissimi
Doctores what excellent persons we were who were now to be ell-ell-deed. Then he took us one by one by the hand, & presented each
in his turn, pronouncing his name aloud, saying who & what he was, & calling him many laudat[MS obscured] to show what [MS
obscured] we were, each [MS obscured] The xxx xxx audience then [MS obscured] liked the person, [MS obscured] Vice
Chancellor stood up, & repeating the f[MS obscured] words in issime ell-ell-deed the person, the beadles lifted up the <bar of
separation,> and the new-made Doctor went up the steps & took his seat among the dignissimi Doctores.
Oh Bertha Kate & Bel if you had seen me that day! I was like the other issimis, drest in a great robe of the finest
crimson scarlet cloth, with sleeves of rose coloured silk & I had in my hand a black velvet cap like a
beef-eaters,r Phillimore, who was an old schoolfellow of mine, & a very
good man, took [MS obscured] me by the hand, in my turn, & presented me: upon which there was a great clapping of hands &
huzzaing at my name. When that was over the Vice chancellor stood up & said those words whereby I was ell-ell-deed, Doctissime et
ornatissime vir (all in issime
Little girls, you know it might be proper for me now to wear a large wig, & to be called Doctor Southey, & to
become very severe, & leave off being a comical Pappa. And if you should find that ell-ell-deeing has made this difference in me,
you will not be surprized. However I shall not come down in a wig, neither shall I wear my robes at home. I have [MS obscured] sent
prayer books bound in red morrocco [MS obscured] Edith & Bertha & Bel
Kates godmother, Mrs Hill having sent her one, with a bible.
And I have bought for the use of all, the history of King Arthur & his kxxg Knights in three volumes