3791. Robert Southey to Sarah Browne, 31 January 1822

 

Address: To/ Miss Sarah Browne/ Ludlow
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
MS: Robert H. Taylor Collection, Princeton University Library. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 31. Jany. 1822.
My dear Miss Sarah

I am much obliged to you for your letter. There is a satisfaction in knowing the whole on these mournful occasions, & there is a comfort also, – when the circumstances as in this case, are such as to have mitigated, in all that is possible, – the severest of all afflictions. – I am old enough never to enter upon a new year without an aweful sense of the uncertainty of life, – & a fear of what it may take from me <in its course>. Last year deprived me of my poor fellow traveller Nash, who was half domesticated with us; – & of your excellent father, for whom I had a most sincere respect & regard, & whose hospitable house I hoped often to have revisited. These are serious losses. At my age new friends are rarely made, – & there is hardly life enough before me for them to become old ones.

I had had many fears concerning your brother,

(1)

Wade Browne (1796–1851), only son of Wade Browne and later a country gentleman at Monkton Farleigh in Somerset. He had been travelling in the Near East.

– & indeed it appears that he has gone thro many dangers. His last accident however is not perhaps to be accounted a misfortune, if it has saved him from the risque of a voyage in this tempestuous & most perilous season. His travels have been more interesting than if he had pursued the course which he had purposed. They have led him among stranger people, & thro countries which are much less generally known. I shall be glad to hear that you have had good accounts from him & that his health is reestablished.

You see I have been making my appearance of late in the newspapers.

(2)

In the ‘Appendix’ to ‘The Two Foscari’, Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy. Cain, A Mystery (London, 1821), p. 328, Byron had cautioned: ‘I am not ignorant of Mr. Southey’s calumnies on a different occasion, knowing them to be such, which he scattered abroad on his return from Switzerland against me and others.’ Southey had visited Switzerland in his continental tour of May–August 1817. The ‘calumnies’ Byron believed Southey to have later spread were rumours that Byron and Shelley had engaged in a ‘League of Incest’ during their residence in Switzerland in 1816. Southey had re…

There is some satisfaction in knowing that a letter published thro that channel finds its way to all whom one wishes to see it. I am sure you know my temper well enough to believe that it has not been disturbed on this occasion. In fact I never let my family know the provocation which had been given me, till my letter had been written, sent over to Mr Wordsworth for his inspection & opinion, & transcribed for transmission to the Courier. I hate controversial writing because it is a waste of time, not because it xx can in any way disquiet me. And in this instance Lord Byrons impudent abuse would have past without notice from me, if there had not been a direct charge of slander which required a direct denial, & which gave me an opportunity of again holding up him to public view the abominable tendency & purport of his works. This I have reason to believe has not been without some effect. And I have no wish to pursue the subject farther. Indeed he has now thrown off the mask & made so open an avowal of the vilest principles both moral & religious, that the well-meaning part of the world will be need no <farther> warning against those of his works in which the poison is covertly administered.

I am as usual closely employed. The first volume of the Peninsular War

(3)

Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

will appear in the course of this season. And I have also in the press under the title of the Book of the Church,

(4)

Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).

a comprehensive view of the history of religion in England, written with the hope of imbuing young minds with those principles which ought to be their best inheritance & their surest supports. I will take care that a copy shall be sent Mrs Browne as soon as it is ready, which however will not be in less than three or four months. Meantime I shall hope to hear that time is doing for you & for her what time alone can do, & that your accounts from Wade are what you would wish. – We shall meet again I trust. Indeed whenever I may be within a long reach of you, I will not let the opportunity pass by.

My family, thank God, are well, & desire to be most kindly remembered xxxxxxxx to Mrs Browne, & your sister <& yourself>. Forget not to add my love to little Mary,

(5)

Mary Browne (1810–1892), younger sister of Sarah Browne. She later married William Farwell (1806–1876), Rector of St Martin’s, Liskeard 1830–1876.

& believe me my dear Miss Sarah

Yrs with sincere regard
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. Wade Browne (1796–1851), only son of Wade Browne and later a country gentleman at Monkton Farleigh in Somerset. He had been travelling in the Near East. [back]
2. In the ‘Appendix’ to ‘The Two Foscari’, Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy. Cain, A Mystery (London, 1821), p. 328, Byron had cautioned: ‘I am not ignorant of Mr. Southey’s calumnies on a different occasion, knowing them to be such, which he scattered abroad on his return from Switzerland against me and others.’ Southey had visited Switzerland in his continental tour of May–August 1817. The ‘calumnies’ Byron believed Southey to have later spread were rumours that Byron and Shelley had engaged in a ‘League of Incest’ during their residence in Switzerland in 1816. Southey had responded by writing to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776. His letter was published in the Courier on 11 January 1822. [back]
3. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). [back]
4. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824). [back]
5. Mary Browne (1810–1892), younger sister of Sarah Browne. She later married William Farwell (1806–1876), Rector of St Martin’s, Liskeard 1830–1876. [back]
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