3989. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 25 March [1823]

 

Address: To/ J Rickman Esqre 
Endorsement: RS to JR 25 MarchWatermark: WD & Co/ 1819
MS: Huntington Library, RS 432. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 384–385.

My dear Rickman

I am trying my hand at some Inscriptions more meo

(1)

‘as is my custom’.

in blank verse, – one in honour of the Cal. Canal, & another of the Engineer.

(2)

Southey had visited the Caledonian Canal with Rickman and Thomas Telford on their tour of Scotland in August–September 1819. He wrote three ‘Inscriptions for the Caledonian Canal’: ‘Inscription for a Tablet at Banavie, on the Caledonian Canal’, Friendship’s Offering. A Literary Album (London, 1826), pp. [167]–168; and ‘At Clachnacharry’ and ‘At Fort Augustus’, The Anniversary; or, Poetry and Prose for MDCCCXXIX (London, 1829), pp. 194–197. At this time Southey had only written the first two of these poems, the first of which specifically honoured Telford, who had overseen the canal’s construct…

I shall try at a third about the Highland Roads, – tho not in rivalry of General Wades.

(3)

Field Marshal George Wade (1673–1748; DNB), the military commander who constructed many barracks, bridges and roads in Scotland. The anonymous couplet ‘If you had seen this road before it was made/ You would lift up your hands and bless General Wade’ was widely known and was often said to be inscribed on a stone at the start of one of his roads. Southey did not write an inscription on the ‘Highland Roads’, which Telford had also played a major role in constructing.

You shall soon have them.

To day I have heard of a remedy for the hooping cough, practised at this time in this town; – it is to pass the child three times under the belly of an Ass!

Can you send me the Agricultural & Commercial Reports of last year?

(4)

The Report of the Select Committee on Agricultural Distress (1822) and the Report from the Select Committee Appointed to Consider the Means of Improving and Maintaining the Foreign Trade of the Country (1822).

– Gifford would have had me write upon these subjects, but I did not think myself competent to it.

(5)

Southey did not write on these subjects for the Quarterly Review.

The present distress is I suppose like other cries of the same kind, – one set of men losing while others gain in a like proportion; & the loss happens now to fall upon the most querulous & most powerful part of the community:

(6)

The restoration of convertibility of Bank of England notes to gold in 1821 was widely blamed for restricting credit and leading to a fall in prices. Some of the loudest complaints came from the agricultural sector, where prices fell sharply in 1819–1823.

More selfish than the commercial interest they are not; – but certainly nothing could exceed the selfishness which they manifested in more instances than one during the war.

I have not heard from Wynn since he has been on his bed of roses.

(7)

Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593; DNB), ‘The Passionate Shepherd to his Love’ (1599), line 9. Wynn had joined the Cabinet as President of the Board of Control in January 1822. This post gave him ultimate responsibility for overseeing the affairs of the East India Company and the government of its possessions in India.

But I dare say he thinks not quite so favourably of Grey Bennets

(8)

Henry Grey Bennet (1777–1836), the Whig MP for Shrewsbury, 1806–1807, 1811–1826; a prominent critic of the government. He had become involved in a series of bad-tempered arguments with Wynn in 1822 over the imprisonment of the radical politician Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt (1773–1835; DNB).

intentions & disposition as he used to do.

The French Gov. I hear thinks itself strengthened by these eruptions of disaffection.

(9)

There had been a series of small-scale liberal conspiracies and army revolts against the royalist regime in France 1820–1822. French liberals vehemently opposed their government’s plans to invade Spain in April 1823 to crush the liberal regime there and there were widespread reports of attempts by liberals to undermine the French army’s loyalty in March–April 1823.

I should think so too, if the adjoining states were tranquil & contented. It is however a great point to have a ministry in France, who are decidedly Royalists

(10)

Jean-Baptiste de Villèle (1773–1854) was Prime Minister of an ultra-royalist cabinet in France 1821–1828.

Do you remember the little man of the Irish Commissariat, who called upon me in behalf of certain cast off cavalry horses? – He dined with me last week, – having been turned off after six & twenty years service. We have had many humbugs in our days, but none so cruel in its operation as this humbug of economy.

God bless you
RS.

25 March.

If Mrs R. has not seen a little volume of poems called the Widows Tale, I recommend it to her.

(11)

Bowles, The Widow’s Tale: and Other Poems (1822).

– It comes from the New Forest the authoress is a Miss Bowles, of Buckland near Lymington

Notes

1. ‘as is my custom’.[back]
2. Southey had visited the Caledonian Canal with Rickman and Thomas Telford on their tour of Scotland in August–September 1819. He wrote three ‘Inscriptions for the Caledonian Canal’: ‘Inscription for a Tablet at Banavie, on the Caledonian Canal’, Friendship’s Offering. A Literary Album (London, 1826), pp. [167]–168; and ‘At Clachnacharry’ and ‘At Fort Augustus’, The Anniversary; or, Poetry and Prose for MDCCCXXIX (London, 1829), pp. 194–197. At this time Southey had only written the first two of these poems, the first of which specifically honoured Telford, who had overseen the canal’s construction.[back]
3. Field Marshal George Wade (1673–1748; DNB), the military commander who constructed many barracks, bridges and roads in Scotland. The anonymous couplet ‘If you had seen this road before it was made/ You would lift up your hands and bless General Wade’ was widely known and was often said to be inscribed on a stone at the start of one of his roads. Southey did not write an inscription on the ‘Highland Roads’, which Telford had also played a major role in constructing.[back]
4. The Report of the Select Committee on Agricultural Distress (1822) and the Report from the Select Committee Appointed to Consider the Means of Improving and Maintaining the Foreign Trade of the Country (1822).[back]
5. Southey did not write on these subjects for the Quarterly Review.[back]
6. The restoration of convertibility of Bank of England notes to gold in 1821 was widely blamed for restricting credit and leading to a fall in prices. Some of the loudest complaints came from the agricultural sector, where prices fell sharply in 1819–1823.[back]
7. Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593; DNB), ‘The Passionate Shepherd to his Love’ (1599), line 9. Wynn had joined the Cabinet as President of the Board of Control in January 1822. This post gave him ultimate responsibility for overseeing the affairs of the East India Company and the government of its possessions in India.[back]
8. Henry Grey Bennet (1777–1836), the Whig MP for Shrewsbury, 1806–1807, 1811–1826; a prominent critic of the government. He had become involved in a series of bad-tempered arguments with Wynn in 1822 over the imprisonment of the radical politician Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt (1773–1835; DNB).[back]
9. There had been a series of small-scale liberal conspiracies and army revolts against the royalist regime in France 1820–1822. French liberals vehemently opposed their government’s plans to invade Spain in April 1823 to crush the liberal regime there and there were widespread reports of attempts by liberals to undermine the French army’s loyalty in March–April 1823.[back]
10. Jean-Baptiste de Villèle (1773–1854) was Prime Minister of an ultra-royalist cabinet in France 1821–1828.[back]
11. Bowles, The Widow’s Tale: and Other Poems (1822).[back]
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