3864. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [late June 1822]

 

MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4813D. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.
Dating note: Dating from content. The letter must have been written in late June 1822 as Southey refers to expecting a visit from Nicholas Lightfoot ‘next week’ and Lightfoot arrived on 4 or 5 July 1822.

My dear Wynn

You will have seen that I wrote to Mrs Hughes on the very day when your note was dispatched. Her sons book

(1)

John Hughes (1790–1857; DNB), An Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone made During the Year 1819 (1822).

reached me only the day before. Bracebridge Hall

(2)

Washington Irving (1783–1859), Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists. A Medley (1822). A copy was sent to Southey by John Murray.

came with it. I agree with you in your opinion of Irving; only I should not select Westminster Abbey as the best specimen of his talents.

(3)

Washington Irving, ‘Westminster Abbey’ in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., 2 vols (London, 1820), II, pp. 3–26.

I thought it over laboured for the sake of effect, even when I made allowance for the feelings of an American.

Have you read Leucadio Doblado (i.e. Blanco Whites) Letters from Spain?

(4)

Letters from Spain by Don Leucadio Doblado (1822).

They give, as might be expected, a better account of manners & the state of society in that country than can be found in any other work.

I expect my old fellow collegian Lightfoot to visit me next week – whom I have not seen for eight & twenty years.

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. John Hughes (1790–1857; DNB), An Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone made During the Year 1819 (1822).[back]
2. Washington Irving (1783–1859), Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists. A Medley (1822). A copy was sent to Southey by John Murray.[back]
3. Washington Irving, ‘Westminster Abbey’ in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., 2 vols (London, 1820), II, pp. 3–26.[back]
4. Letters from Spain by Don Leucadio Doblado (1822).[back]
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