3811. Robert Southey to William Peachy, 8 March 1822

 

Address: To/ Major-General Peachy/ 18. Albemarle Street/ London.
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 11 MR 11/ 1822
MS: British Library, Add MS 28603. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

My dear Sir

In this age of reformation & improvement, a very needful improvement has been undertaken at Keswick, – to which I have been desired to solicit your contribution. It is that of making a safe & commodious church-path. Mr Stanger has given as much of his field as is necessary for widening the church lane, where it is proposed to form a raised path of a sufficient width, secured from carriages by a curb-stone. The estimate is 27 £. – there is a hedge to be grubbed, another planted, fenced &c. & if there be any overplus, as it is hoped there will, it goes to improve the path between the church lane & the town. Greenwich Hospital

(1)

Greenwich Hospital owned much of the land around Keswick.

contributes railing & two guineas. Mr Stevenson

(2)

The Stephensons were a long-established and prominent Keswick family, whose best-known representative had been John Stephenson (1691–1768), MP for Sudbury 1734–1741, who made a fortune in India. John Stephenson had no children and by this time his relatives were based in London, mainly engaged in banking. Southey is probably referring here to Edward Stephenson (1759–1833) of the firm Stephenson, Remington & Co.

two guineas. – Calvert, one with the use of carts & horses, – & there the list ended when it was brought to me by Mr Edmondson. The intention is to go from house to house, & collect even the smallest sums that may be offered for a work of general convenience.

Thank you for Coltons pamphlett

(3)

Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832; DNB), Remarks Critical and Moral on the Talents of Lord Byron, and the Tendencies of Don Juan (1819). Colton was a notably eccentric clergyman, writer, wine merchant and gambler, who later lived in the United States and France.

which I have received this very day. It is written with great ability, but not always with judgement, & there is a sneer at Lady Byron which would have been improper anywhere, & is here peculiarly out of place.

(4)

Remarks Critical and Moral on the Talents of Lord Byron, and the Tendencies of Don Juan (London, 1819), p. 9: ‘There are some pairs so ill-sorted, that we ought to be more surprised at their union, than their separation; perhaps, the enigmatical part of this domestic division, might be explained by observing that the mathematics, and what his Lordship would term methodism, were two things not likely to amalgamate the most happily with poetry and with infidelity. The angles of the first might appear to his Lordship to be too pointed and proximate; and the angels of the other too obscure and rem…

– I heard a good deal of Colton some years ago from Standard, & the impression then made upon me was he was a man of brilliant talents, but not altogether sane.

There is a cottage just behind Wordsworths at Rydal Mount, where the people had a most providential deliverance two nights ago.

(5)

This incident was reported in the Westmorland Gazette, 9 March 1822. The fire began in the outbuildings of James Fleming (dates unknown), a farmer at Rydal.

A person going out from Wordsworths about eleven o clock, perceived a strange light there, & gave the alarm just as the flames broke out, the whole family being so fast asleep that there was great difficulty in wakening them. Had he come out five minutes sooner, he would have seen nothing, – & in ten minutes later it would have been too late to save their lives. The fire began in the stable & burnt down that & the house.

You will have read in the papers of our tremendous flood in which the clergyman of Basenthwaite

(6)

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.

was taken off his horse, by the turnpike, carried over two hedges & drowned. Nothing equal to it is remembered in these parts. A few days afterwards poor Clarke

(7)

Thomas Clark (d. 1822), a nurseryman, had rented some of the land next to Greta Hall. He had been declared bankrupt in 1817. His death was reported in the Westmorland Gazette, 23 February 1822, as occurring on 18 February 1822.

dropt down dead, nearly upon the same spot.

I am sorry to read of the death of my old school & chamber-fellow James Boswell,

(8)

James Boswell (1778–1822; DNB), lawyer, poet and literary scholar. He died on 24 February 1822.

– who was the very image of his father,

(9)

James Boswell (1740–1795; DNB), diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson (1709–1784; DNB). Both Boswells were heavy drinkers.

& followed him but too closely in a weakness which has shortened his days. An inoffensive, good-natured, chearful man he was, possessed of good natural parts & much acquired knowledge. He was about three years my junior. When I look round upon the sea of life, for those with whom I began my voyage, I perceive now that they are rari nantes.

(10)

A contraction of ‘apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto’, or ‘there in the vast abyss are seen the swimmers few and far between’, Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC), Aeneid (29 BC), Book 1, line 118.

Your new road is not yet compleated; neither labour nor materials are spared upon it.

If Mrs Peachy has not seen a little volume of poems entitled the Widows Tale by the Author of Ellen Fitzarthur,

(11)

Caroline Bowles, Ellen Fitzarthur; a Metrical Tale, in Five Cantos (1820) and The Widow’s Tale and Other Poems (1822).

let me recommend it to her: The authoress is a Miss Bowles of Buckland in the New Forest, near Lymington. Few writers of the possess a finer feeling, or a greater power of expression.

The Ladies join in kind remembrances. Present mine also to Mrs Peachy, & to Mr Henry,

(12)

James Henry (1803–1884), the elder of Peachy’s two stepsons.

if he be with you, & believe me

my dear Sir
Yrs very truly
Robert Southey

Keswick. 8 March. 1822.

Notes

1. Greenwich Hospital owned much of the land around Keswick.[back]
2. The Stephensons were a long-established and prominent Keswick family, whose best-known representative had been John Stephenson (1691–1768), MP for Sudbury 1734–1741, who made a fortune in India. John Stephenson had no children and by this time his relatives were based in London, mainly engaged in banking. Southey is probably referring here to Edward Stephenson (1759–1833) of the firm Stephenson, Remington & Co.[back]
3. Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832; DNB), Remarks Critical and Moral on the Talents of Lord Byron, and the Tendencies of Don Juan (1819). Colton was a notably eccentric clergyman, writer, wine merchant and gambler, who later lived in the United States and France.[back]
4. Remarks Critical and Moral on the Talents of Lord Byron, and the Tendencies of Don Juan (London, 1819), p. 9: ‘There are some pairs so ill-sorted, that we ought to be more surprised at their union, than their separation; perhaps, the enigmatical part of this domestic division, might be explained by observing that the mathematics, and what his Lordship would term methodism, were two things not likely to amalgamate the most happily with poetry and with infidelity. The angles of the first might appear to his Lordship to be too pointed and proximate; and the angels of the other too obscure and remote.’ This passage was a reference to the marriage of Byron and Anne Isabella Byron, née Milbanke (1792–1860; DNB) and to Lady Byron’s interest in mathematics and religion.[back]
5. This incident was reported in the Westmorland Gazette, 9 March 1822. The fire began in the outbuildings of James Fleming (dates unknown), a farmer at Rydal.[back]
6. 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]
7. Thomas Clark (d. 1822), a nurseryman, had rented some of the land next to Greta Hall. He had been declared bankrupt in 1817. His death was reported in the Westmorland Gazette, 23 February 1822, as occurring on 18 February 1822.[back]
8. James Boswell (1778–1822; DNB), lawyer, poet and literary scholar. He died on 24 February 1822.[back]
9. James Boswell (1740–1795; DNB), diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson (1709–1784; DNB). Both Boswells were heavy drinkers.[back]
10. A contraction of ‘apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto’, or ‘there in the vast abyss are seen the swimmers few and far between’, Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC), Aeneid (29 BC), Book 1, line 118.[back]
11. Caroline Bowles, Ellen Fitzarthur; a Metrical Tale, in Five Cantos (1820) and The Widow’s Tale and Other Poems (1822).[back]
12. James Henry (1803–1884), the elder of Peachy’s two stepsons.[back]
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