3898. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 25 September 1822

 

Address: To/ G.C. Bedford Esqre/ Exchequer/ Westminster
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 28 SE 28/ 1822
Endorsement: 25 Sept. 1822/ Nothing
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. c. 26. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.

Keswick 25 Sept 1822
My dear Grosvenor

If you can send me some money it will come very seasonably to supply an exhausted exchequer. I have during the last three months expended more time than my finances can well afford in laying in a stock of health & exercise. It has answered to the extent of my hopes but while I get rid of one ailment

(1)

Southey had been suffering from a rectal prolapse.

a consumption of the purse is brought on, which is a very unpleasant disease.

Sirius is here & we have had some glorious mountaineering. He departs this day week & leaves me an injunction with me to keep up a system of vigorous exercise during the winter, in all weathers. This I shall endeavor to do tho sorely against the grain. But I have felt the ill consequences of inaction this year too severely & too seriously not to take warning.

The whole of the first volume

(2)

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

being now finished you had better send me the remaining clean sheets & I will have them put in boards so as to be in a legible form.

Mackenzie

(3)

Colin Alexander Mackenzie (1778?–1851), a wealthy Scot who was employed on a number of delicate diplomatic missions and may well have been a government spy. In 1815 he was appointed one of the Commissioners of Liquidation, Arbitration and Deposit, who adjudicated on claims by British citizens for loss of property against the French government. Southey dined with him in Paris on 17 and 19 May 1817.

dined with me on Saturday & Sunday last – he came over with Wordsworth, & Lord Lowther met him here. I put into his hands the part relating to himself.

(4)

Mackenzie’s role in the evacuation of the Spanish Division of the North in August 1808 was described in Southey’s History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. 657–659.

Upon Harrys departure I expect to be left wholly to myself for the remainder of the year & to make good use of the time. – We are well – the girls

(5)

Southey’s daughters, Edith-May Southey, Bertha Southey, Kate Southey and Isabel Southey.

in the happiness of preparation for a dance on Friday –

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. Southey had been suffering from a rectal prolapse.[back]
2. The first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
3. Colin Alexander Mackenzie (1778?–1851), a wealthy Scot who was employed on a number of delicate diplomatic missions and may well have been a government spy. In 1815 he was appointed one of the Commissioners of Liquidation, Arbitration and Deposit, who adjudicated on claims by British citizens for loss of property against the French government. Southey dined with him in Paris on 17 and 19 May 1817.[back]
4. Mackenzie’s role in the evacuation of the Spanish Division of the North in August 1808 was described in Southey’s History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. 657–659.[back]
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