4063. Robert Southey to Nicholas Lightfoot, 23 September 1823

 

Address: [in another hand] Portsmouth Twenty Seventh Septr./ 1823/ The Revd./ Nicholas Lightfoot/ Crediton/ Devon/ Free/ JRickman
Postmark: [partial] POR xx/ S xxx/ 1823/ 73
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. d. 110. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 143–145 [in part].

Keswick. 23 Sept. 1823
My dear Lightfoot

The summer, or what ought to have been the summer, has slipt away; & the autumn, or what ought to be autumn, is passing after it, & I have not yet been further from my fire side than a mornings walk could carry me. I can tell you however now that I shall start from home with my daughter Edith as early as possible in November,

(1)

Southey left home on 3 November 1823.

or if possible before the beginning of that month; & that after halting a week or ten days in London I shall pursue my course to Crediton.

By that time my Book of the Church

(2)

Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824); it was still unfinished when he left home.

will be finished, which ought to have been finished long ago. The last long interruption was occasioned by laying it aside to prepare a paper for the next Quarterly,

(3)

Bishop Burnet’s History of his Own Time: with the Suppressed Passages of the First Volume and Notes by the Earls of Dartmouth and Hardwicke, and Speaker Onslow, Hitherto Unpublished; to Which are Added the Cursory Remarks of Swift, and Other Observations (1823), no. 498 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a new edition of Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715; DNB), History of My Own Time (1724–1734), edited by Martin Routh (1755–1854; DNB). Southey reviewed it in Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 165–214, published 27–28 September 1823, and used the occasion to survey the reign of Charl…

– but continual interruptions arise from visitors, the necessity of exercise, & the temptations which a fine day brings with it, to all which not a little must be added for a want of that dogged resolution which goes steadily on with what ought to be done, & an inclination to be xxxx doing something else. I have not thoroughly recovered the ill effect which my annual cold left behind it this year. Last year you were my physician, & began my cure by taking me abroad. I have felt the want of such a companion now, & when opportunity has offered in other respects the miserable weather has obstructed all our plans. So wet a season has never occurred in the remembrance of the oldest persons here: A long journey will brace me up again. – By the by will Fanny Jane

(4)

Frances Jane Lightfoot (1806–1882), Southey’s god-daughter.

be still in the neighbourhood of London when I arrive there? If so, & it suit with her plans I may convoy her home.

I think I told you in a former letter that my brother had resolved upon removing his family to Canada, & was gone before to reconnoitre the country & prepare the way. He went, fled thro the country as fast as steamboats & stagecoaches could carry xxxx him, did not even go to look at the part where he might have had an allotment, learned absolutely nothing more than he knew before he set out & returned three months after his departure having determined that he to give up all intention of emigration, – some set off to this vexation & the long train of uneasiness & anxiety which awaits me from that quarter, you will have seen that my brother Henry is appointed one of the King’s physicians

(5)

Henry Herbert Southey had been elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians on 25 June 1823; the London Gazette, 1 July 1823, announced he had been appointed a Physician in Ordinary to George IV.

This is a great step for him, & will undoubtedly be the means of increasing his practice.

The summer has brought with it its usual flock of strangers, some of them sufficiently amusing. My civilities to them are regulated something by the recommendations with which they present themselves, & a little more perhaps by their likeability, which depends something upon the cut of their jib. You know how impossible it is not to read faces, & be in some degree influenced by what we see in them. We have had two travellers from New England, young men both,

(6)

These two travellers were possibly: Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798–1862), brother-in-law of George Ticknor, a prominent figure in Boston society, philanthropist and Mayor of Boston 1837–1839; and William Howard Gardiner (1797–1882), later a lawyer in Boston, and son of John Sylvester John Gardiner (1765–1830), an Episcopal clergyman in Boston, who had taught Latin and Greek to George Ticknor.

& well qualified to keep up the good impression which their countrymen had left here. Last week we had an Englishman

(7)

John Carne (1789–1844; DNB), a traveller and author, who had just returned from an extended visit to the Near East.

who having travelled in the Levant & been made prisoner by the Bedouins near Mount Sinai, chuses to relate his adventures instead of publishing them, & tells Arabian stories after the manner of the professed story tellers in the East. I wish you had seen him the other evening gravely delivering a tale of a magic ring (it was a full hour long) to some a circle of some sixteen persons in this room, – the Vicar

(8)

James Lynn (1776–1855), the Perpetual Curate of Strood 1805–1814, Rector of Caldbeck 1814–1820, Vicar of Crosthwaite, Keswick 1820–1855.

being one of the number. But the most interesting stranger who has found his way here, is a Somersetshire man Morrison

(9)

James Morrison (1789–1857; DNB), an immensely wealthy businessman. His main business at this time was a general drapery firm in Fore Street, City of London. Morrison was originally from Middle Wallop in Wiltshire, though his mother came from Shapwick in Somerset, and he seems to have spent some of his childhood there.

by name, who at the age of two or three & thirty, & beginning with little or nothing has realized some 150,000 £ in trade, & was then bound to New Lanark, with the intention of vesting 5000 £ in Owens Experiment,

(10)

Robert Owen (1771–1858; DNB), the manager and owner of the textile mill at New Lanark 1799–1825 and a utopian thinker. Morrison invested in the proposed community to be founded on Owen’s principles at Orbiston, near Motherwell.

if he fou should find his expectations confirmed by what he sees there. This person is well acquainted with the principle men among the Freethinking Christians;

(11)

The Free Thinking Christians were a denomination founded by Samuel Thompson (1766–1837; DNB) in 1798. At this time their meetings were in High Holborn, London. They rejected both the sacraments and the Trinity and had attracted some notoriety.

he likes the men, but sees reason to doubt their doctrine. He seems to be searching for truth in such a temper of mind, that there is good reason for thinking he will find it. – At present we have some old friends on the Island, sisters to the first Mrs Peaxhxy Peachy, with two other Ladies their relations,

(12)

Louisa Charter, and Elizabeth Charter (1782–1860), friend of the poet George Crabbe (1754–1832; DNB). They were the sisters of Emma Peachy, first wife of William Peachy, and nieces of Sir Charles Malet (1752–1815; DNB), 1st Baronet, a prominent diplomat with the East India Company. Peachy had lent the Charter sisters his home on Derwent Island. They were accompanied by Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB), the maternal uncle of the Charter sisters. Their other companion was one of the three children born in India to Sir Charles Malet and Amber Kaur (b. 1772): Eliza (b. 1791); Henry Charles (1793–1844); and Louisa (b. 1795). They accompanied Malet to Britain in 1798 and were brought up with his children by Susanna Malet. Eliza Malet married, in 1812, Robert Ekins (1785–1874), Vicar of Godalming 1810–1833, Rector of Folke, Dorset 1833–1843, Perpetual Curate of North Wootton 1843–1854. Southey is probably referring here to Louisa Malet.

– & we are waiting for [MS missing] weather to take with them that Cart excursion which succeeded so well when you were of the party, – to Buttermere & so by Honister Crag into Borrodale. But when the sun will shine & when the roads will be dry, x is more than the weatherwise can promise us.

My household are in tolerable order. It has been increased this year by the acquisition of a most worthy Tom Cat, who when the tenants of the next house

(13)

A family called Midgeley, who had lately rented Greta Lodge.

departed, was invited to this, where he received the name of Rumpelstilschen, & has become a great favourite. I cannot say of him as Bedford does of a similar animal, that he is the best-for-nothing Cat in the world, because he has done good service upon the rats, & been successively promoted to the rank of Baron, Viscount & Earl. In most other things we are as you left us, – except that just now the waters are not in their place, – having overflowed their banks.

All here desire to be most kindly remembered. Make my best wishes to Mrs Lightfoot,

(14)

Nicholas Lightfoot married Bridget Prideaux (1768–1856) on 13 July 1801.

& those whom in a few weeks I shall know by person as well as by name.

God bless you my dear Lightfoot
Yrs affectionately
RSouthey.

Notes

1. Southey left home on 3 November 1823.[back]
2. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824); it was still unfinished when he left home.[back]
3. Bishop Burnet’s History of his Own Time: with the Suppressed Passages of the First Volume and Notes by the Earls of Dartmouth and Hardwicke, and Speaker Onslow, Hitherto Unpublished; to Which are Added the Cursory Remarks of Swift, and Other Observations (1823), no. 498 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a new edition of Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715; DNB), History of My Own Time (1724–1734), edited by Martin Routh (1755–1854; DNB). Southey reviewed it in Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 165–214, published 27–28 September 1823, and used the occasion to survey the reign of Charles II (1630–1685; King of Great Britain 1660–1685; DNB).[back]
4. Frances Jane Lightfoot (1806–1882), Southey’s god-daughter.[back]
5. Henry Herbert Southey had been elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians on 25 June 1823; the London Gazette, 1 July 1823, announced he had been appointed a Physician in Ordinary to George IV.[back]
6. These two travellers were possibly: Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798–1862), brother-in-law of George Ticknor, a prominent figure in Boston society, philanthropist and Mayor of Boston 1837–1839; and William Howard Gardiner (1797–1882), later a lawyer in Boston, and son of John Sylvester John Gardiner (1765–1830), an Episcopal clergyman in Boston, who had taught Latin and Greek to George Ticknor. [back]
7. John Carne (1789–1844; DNB), a traveller and author, who had just returned from an extended visit to the Near East.[back]
8. James Lynn (1776–1855), the Perpetual Curate of Strood 1805–1814, Rector of Caldbeck 1814–1820, Vicar of Crosthwaite, Keswick 1820–1855.[back]
9. James Morrison (1789–1857; DNB), an immensely wealthy businessman. His main business at this time was a general drapery firm in Fore Street, City of London. Morrison was originally from Middle Wallop in Wiltshire, though his mother came from Shapwick in Somerset, and he seems to have spent some of his childhood there.[back]
10. Robert Owen (1771–1858; DNB), the manager and owner of the textile mill at New Lanark 1799–1825 and a utopian thinker. Morrison invested in the proposed community to be founded on Owen’s principles at Orbiston, near Motherwell.[back]
11. The Free Thinking Christians were a denomination founded by Samuel Thompson (1766–1837; DNB) in 1798. At this time their meetings were in High Holborn, London. They rejected both the sacraments and the Trinity and had attracted some notoriety.[back]
12. Louisa Charter, and Elizabeth Charter (1782–1860), friend of the poet George Crabbe (1754–1832; DNB). They were the sisters of Emma Peachy, first wife of William Peachy, and nieces of Sir Charles Malet (1752–1815; DNB), 1st Baronet, a prominent diplomat with the East India Company. Peachy had lent the Charter sisters his home on Derwent Island. They were accompanied by Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB), the maternal uncle of the Charter sisters. Their other companion was one of the three children born in India to Sir Charles Malet and Amber Kaur (b. 1772): Eliza (b. 1791); Henry Charles (1793–1844); and Louisa (b. 1795). They accompanied Malet to Britain in 1798 and were brought up with his children by Susanna Malet. Eliza Malet married, in 1812, Robert Ekins (1785–1874), Vicar of Godalming 1810–1833, Rector of Folke, Dorset 1833–1843, Perpetual Curate of North Wootton 1843–1854. Southey is probably referring here to Louisa Malet.[back]
13. A family called Midgeley, who had lately rented Greta Lodge.[back]
14. Nicholas Lightfoot married Bridget Prideaux (1768–1856) on 13 July 1801.[back]
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