3802. Robert Southey to Andrew Bell [fragment], 22 February 1822

 

Address: [partial; in another hand] [MS missing]n February twenty/ five 1822/ Revd Dr Bell/ Castle Douglas/ Dumfries/ [MS missing]ynn
Postmark: FREE/ 25 FE 25/ 1822
MS: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, KESMG 302/ WC 214. AL; 4p.
Unpublished.
Note on MS: The lower half of f. 2 r and v is missing.

Keswick. 22 Feby. 1822
My dear Sir

A longer time than usual has elapsed without our seeing you, – & it is also very long since we have heard of each other, – except by such intelligence as is common to every body in the newspapers. There I have seen that you were in the post of honour at the meetings of the National Society,

(1)

The National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church in England and Wales, established in 1811. Bell was a leading figure in the Society, and its schools followed his educational ideas.

– & you will have seen that I have been, as usual, assailed by the whole Satanic fraternity, & very well able to withstand them.

(2)

Southey had attacked ‘the Satanic school’ of poetry in the ‘Preface’ to A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), pp. xvii–xxii, without naming any one poet, though Byron was clearly one of his targets. 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 …

Some of my acquaintance think that I like to be the object of abuse, & would rather invite than shun it. The truth is that I care no more for it, than for the wind & rain when I am well-housed & have no occasion to leave the fire side. The tortoise is not safer against a hail storm, in his shell, than I am against obloquy in my way of life, & happy temper of mind.

We are going on, God be thanked, as you would wish to hear. The big twins

(3)

Edith May Southey and Sara Coleridge.

are shot up into young women, & the little girls

(4)

Bertha, Kate and Isabel Southey.

fast growing into great ones. Cuthberts birtha day, as he calls it, is on Sunday next: he will then be three years old, & it would not be easy to find a more promising child of that age, in any or all respects.

We have had no winter here, – only two or three slight frosts, never of two days continuance, – & the ground has not once been covered with snow. On the other hand x xxx we have had a succession of wind, like the equinoctial gales for violence, ever since August, with never more than an interval of two or three days. The glass has been at one time as low as it could fall, & we have had greater floods than the oldest person can remember or had ever heard of. A man was thrown from his horse by the National School, swept by the force of the flood over two hedges, & drownd there.

(5)

John Brown (d. 1822), Perpetual Curate of Bassenthwaite, 1801–1822, drowned on the night of 2 February 1822 on his way back from the market at Keswick.

For myself, I like any weather better than sharp frost & nipping blasts. I have past the winter, as usual at my desk, – & perceive, like all persons who are going down the hill of life, that the weeks seem to pass more rapidly every year than they did the last.

You will not be sorry to hear that the Book of the Church

(6)

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

is in the press at last, & I am you will believe that it will not be the worse for having been so long delayed. My subjects are always long in ripening. The first volume of the History of the Peninsular War

(7)

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

is also very far advanced in the printing: – so that I shall take the field this season in great force.

Wordsworth has a series of Sonnets

(8)

Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822).

coming forth, which corresponds as nicely with the Book of the Church, as if my work were designed for a running commentary upon his, or his for a poetical illustration of mine. I cannot but believe as well as hope that both will reach posterity, & be useful now & hereafter.

Sara Coleridge has been for some weeks at Rydal. I am going over shortly for a few days & shall bring her back. Edith goes to Harrogate this spring with Miss Hutchinson, the waters we think will be useful to her, & therefore we are glad of this opportunity of sending her.

Is there any chance of seeing you in the North? I x am not likely to make any distant excursion during the present year; my engagements are too many, & for many reasons I am not sorry that there is this excuse [remainder of MS missing]

Notes

1. The National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church in England and Wales, established in 1811. Bell was a leading figure in the Society, and its schools followed his educational ideas.[back]
2. Southey had attacked ‘the Satanic school’ of poetry in the ‘Preface’ to A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), pp. xvii–xxii, without naming any one poet, though Byron was clearly one of his targets. 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, and Byron believed that he had subsequently spread rumours that Byron and Shelley 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]
5. John Brown (d. 1822), Perpetual Curate of Bassenthwaite, 1801–1822, drowned on the night of 2 February 1822 on his way back from the market at Keswick.[back]
6. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
7. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
8. Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822).[back]
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