4034. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 25 June 1823

 

Address: To/ Mr Cottle/ Dighton Street/ Bristol 
Stamped: [partial] KE/ 298 
Endorsement: June 25th 1823
MS: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), II, pp. 247–250; Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (London, 1847), pp. 238–240, 402 [in part].

Keswick. 25 June. 1823
My dear Cottle

I have a great mind to begin by reproaching you. Do you think if I had had any thing concerning myself to communicate to you, which would have given you such sincere pleasure, as the recovery of your eyes has given me, – that I would have let so long a time elapse without communicating it to you? – I should have thought the mail coach, with its increased speed, could hardly carry the news fast enough. Heartily rejoiced indeed I am to hear it.

Mrs Coleridge was mistaken in supposing that I should pass thro Bristol. I shall not be nearer than Taunton, & not so near if my good Aunt be prevailed upon, as I hope she will, to set off for this place, before my journey commences. When that will be I cannot even yet determine. I must finish my Book of the Church first,

(1)

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

– for upon it my ways & means depend. Under this title, a sketch of our ecclesiastical history is designed. One small volume was intended, & behold it will form two octavos, the second of which is half printed & about a third of it remains to be written. The object of the Book is to give those who come after us a proper bias, by making them feel & understand how much they owe to the religious institutions of their country.

Besides this I have many other works in hand, & few things would give me more pleasure than to shew you their state of progress, & the preparations which I have made for them, if you would bring your sister to pass a summer with us. How joyfully & heartily you would be welcomed I trust you both well know. Our friendship is now of nine & twenty years standing & I will venture to say that for you & for us life cannot have many gratifications in store greater than this would prove. Here are ponies accustomed to climb these mountains, which will carry you to the summit of Skiddaw without the slightest difficulty or danger; – & here is my boat – the Royal Noah – on the lake, in which you may exercise your arms when you like. Within & without I have much to show you. You would like to see my children – from Edith-May, who is taller than her mother, down to Cuthbert who was four years old in February last. Then are my books, of which I am as proud as you are of your bones.

(2)

Cottle had collected nearly two thousand animal bones, many fossilised, from the Oreston caves, near Plymouth, in 1822. He donated the collection to the Bristol Philosophical and Literary Institution.

They are not indeed any of them quite as old, – but then they are twice as many, & I am sure Miss Cottle

(3)

Cottle had three living sisters: Mary, Ann and Sarah; see Cottle family. This is probably a reference to Mary Cottle, as the eldest unmarried sister in the family would usually be addressed as ‘Miss’.

will agree with me that they are much prettier furniture, & much pleasanter companions.

Not that I mean to depreciate your Bones. Forbid it – all that is venerable! I shall very much like to see your account of them. You gave me credit for more than is due when you surmised that the paper in the Quarterly upon that subject might have been mine.

(4)

The review of William Buckland (1784–1856; DNB), Account of an Assemblage of Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephant, Rhinoceros, Bear, Tiger and Hyaena, and Sixteen Other Animals, Discovered in a Cave at Kirkdale, in the Year 1821: with a Comparative View of Five Similar Caverns in Various Parts of England, and Others on the Continent (1822), Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 459–476, published 23 October 1822. The author was Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet (1764–1848; DNB).

I write upon no subject upon which I have not bestowed considerable time & thought; & upon all points of science I confess myself to be either very superficially informed, or altogether ignorant. Some day I will send you a list of all my papers in that Journal, that you may not impute to me any thing which is not mine, & that, – if you have at any time such a desire, – you may see what the opinions the are which I have there advanced; – very few I believe in which you would not entirely accord with me. – You had better send your books thro Longman.

One of the works which I have in progress <hand>, & which will probably go to press in the winter is a Series of Dialogues upon the Progress & Prospects of Society.

(5)

Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829).

It is relieved with some descriptions of this immediate scenery, of which my friend William Westall (who has published the views to illustrate my Peninsular History)

(6)

Westall’s A Series of Views of Spain and Portugal, to Illustrate Mr. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War; Drawn on Stone by W. Westall, A.R.A., from Sketches by General Hawker, Mr. Locker, Mr. Heaphy, &c. Part I, containing Eight Views, illustrating Vol. I (1823). These could be inserted into the first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

has made half a dozen drawings for the engraver. One of them represents the situation of this house

(7)

Westall produced six illustrations for Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies: ‘Druidical Stones near Keswick’; ‘Derwentwater, Bassenthwaite-water and Skiddaw, from Walla Crag’; ‘Derwentwater from Strandshagg’; ‘Crosthwaite Church and Skiddaw’; ‘Greta Hall, Derwentwater and Newlands’; and ‘Tarn of Blencathra’. Southey is referring to the fifth of these in particular.

Depend upon it that every attack upon that miscreant Lord Byron, which is made in the spirit of yours

(8)

Cottle had published An Expostulatory Epistle to Lord Byron (1820).

& mine,

(9)

Southey’s letter to the Courier, 5 January 1822 (Letter 3776), published 11 January 1822.

has its effect some where. some minds are influenced by it, & others encouraged by it to express what before they were afraid or ashamed to declare. I should very much like to show you the correspondence which past between Shelley & myself about three years ago.

(10)

In a letter of 26 June 1820, Shelley had accused Southey of writing a hostile review of Laon and Cythna, or the Revolution of the Golden City (1817; published late 1818) and The Revolt of Islam. A Poem, in Twelve Cantos (1818); see Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 358–359. Southey responded with his letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley, [c. 29 July 1820], The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3517. Shelley replied in a letter to Southey, 17 August 1820, Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert S…

Probably you are not acquainted with half his execrable history. I know the whole, & as he gave me a fitting opportunity, read him such a lecture upon it as he deserved.

So you are going to war with the Antinomians!

(11)

Joseph Cottle, Strictures on the Plymouth Antinomians (1823), no. 1960 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, a condemnation of the views of the popular evangelical preacher Robert Hawker (1753–1827), Vicar of Charles Church, Plymouth 1784–1827. Antinomianism was the doctrine that those whom God had elected to salvation were not obliged to follow moral laws.

A worthy cause. I am as you know pretty well read in the annals of superstition & fanaticism. The Quakers have been in great commotion at the annunciation of my intended life of George Fox.

(12)

George Fox (1625–1691; DNB), founder of Quakerism. Southey did not write his biography.

Little progress is made in it, but xxx considerable preparations. – This, & some Sketches of Monastic History

(13)

Southey did not complete his ‘Sketches of Monastic History’.

– if I live to bring them forth, will probable compleat the ecclesiastical portion of my labours. Alas – I have undertaken more than there is any reasonable likelihood of compleating! Time passes with perceptible speed – like the latter sands in an hour glass. – & I feel it in many ways. The love of writing poetry is departed from me. my head will soon be white, & what is the surest symptom, I feel a disposition to take more thought for the morrow than I was wont to do, – as if distrusting – not the Providence which has hitherto supported me, – but my own powers of exertion. While they last, they will be exerted cheerfully & manfully; & thank God I have no uneasiness concerning my family. As yet I have saved nothing, – but there is a respectable provision for them in a life-insurance, – & in my books copyrights & papers. – But enough of this. Remember me most kindly to your sisters & to Robert, – whom I call as I was wont to do. Write to me sometimes, & make up your mind to bring Miss Cottle here next summer.

God bless you – Yours affectionately
RS.

Notes

1. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824). [back]
2. Cottle had collected nearly two thousand animal bones, many fossilised, from the Oreston caves, near Plymouth, in 1822. He donated the collection to the Bristol Philosophical and Literary Institution. [back]
3. Cottle had three living sisters: Mary, Ann and Sarah; see Cottle family. This is probably a reference to Mary Cottle, as the eldest unmarried sister in the family would usually be addressed as ‘Miss’. [back]
4. The review of William Buckland (1784–1856; DNB), Account of an Assemblage of Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephant, Rhinoceros, Bear, Tiger and Hyaena, and Sixteen Other Animals, Discovered in a Cave at Kirkdale, in the Year 1821: with a Comparative View of Five Similar Caverns in Various Parts of England, and Others on the Continent (1822), Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 459–476, published 23 October 1822. The author was Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet (1764–1848; DNB). [back]
5. Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829). [back]
6. Westall’s A Series of Views of Spain and Portugal, to Illustrate Mr. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War; Drawn on Stone by W. Westall, A.R.A., from Sketches by General Hawker, Mr. Locker, Mr. Heaphy, &c. Part I, containing Eight Views, illustrating Vol. I (1823). These could be inserted into the first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). [back]
7. Westall produced six illustrations for Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies: ‘Druidical Stones near Keswick’; ‘Derwentwater, Bassenthwaite-water and Skiddaw, from Walla Crag’; ‘Derwentwater from Strandshagg’; ‘Crosthwaite Church and Skiddaw’; ‘Greta Hall, Derwentwater and Newlands’; and ‘Tarn of Blencathra’. Southey is referring to the fifth of these in particular. [back]
8. Cottle had published An Expostulatory Epistle to Lord Byron (1820). [back]
9. Southey’s letter to the Courier, 5 January 1822 (Letter 3776), published 11 January 1822. [back]
10. In a letter of 26 June 1820, Shelley had accused Southey of writing a hostile review of Laon and Cythna, or the Revolution of the Golden City (1817; published late 1818) and The Revolt of Islam. A Poem, in Twelve Cantos (1818); see Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 358–359. Southey responded with his letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley, [c. 29 July 1820], The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3517. Shelley replied in a letter to Southey, 17 August 1820, Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 361–363. Southey to Percy Bysshe Shelley, 12 October 1820, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3538 closed the correspondence and contained Southey’s ‘lecture’. [back]
11. Joseph Cottle, Strictures on the Plymouth Antinomians (1823), no. 1960 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, a condemnation of the views of the popular evangelical preacher Robert Hawker (1753–1827), Vicar of Charles Church, Plymouth 1784–1827. Antinomianism was the doctrine that those whom God had elected to salvation were not obliged to follow moral laws. [back]
12. George Fox (1625–1691; DNB), founder of Quakerism. Southey did not write his biography. [back]
13. Southey did not complete his ‘Sketches of Monastic History’. [back]
TEI Link
TEI
Volume Editor(s)
Lynda Pratt
Ian Packer