4072. Robert Southey to Caroline Bowles, 22 October 1823

 

Address: To/ Miss Bowles/ Buckland/ Lymington/ Hampshire
Endorsement: No 33 To Miss Caroline Bowles
MS: British Library, Add MS 47889. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 36–37.

Keswick. 22 Oct. 1823

Thank you for following my directions in halving the note, I shall gain by it another letter, & yet the advice was given in sober prudence, & not with that selfish purpose. I am heartily glad that you have reached home safely, & with so few disagreables on the way, that the fear of such a journey will not stand in the way of your repeating it, for I will not believe that you have taken leave of these mountains for ever. You must not talk of sunset pleasures yet. Your evening is far distant, & many such pleasures as this country can afford (they are not light ones) – are in store I hope both for you & for me. If you are half as desirous of partaking them again, as I am that you should do so, the difficulties in the way will only be thought of with the view of overcoming them. Whatever we may think of dreams, you will allow that day dreams may have some truth in them, & you have borne no small part in mine since your departure. These at least may bring about their accomplishment.

On the day that you reached Oxford, we effected our Watenlath excursion. Go whither I will among these lakes & mountains, I have more ghosts than Sir Thomas More

(1)

Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829), in which Southey as ‘Montesinos’ (man of the mountains) conversed with the ghost of Sir Thomas More (1478–1535; DNB), lawyer, philosopher, statesman and Lord High Chancellor 1529–1532.

to accompany me, – there is scarcely a spot but brings with it some indelible recollection of those whom I have loved & lost. But the predominant feeling on this day was regret that you were not with us. Since then I have been close at work, preparing for my departure, & yet after all I must take with me work to finish at Streatham.

(2)

The Book of the Church (1824), which Southey wished to complete.

We set out on Monday Nov. 3d. Edith & I shall leave the Ladies of the Island

(3)

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), 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.

at Derby, & go to Sir George Beaumonts at Cole-Orton, near Ashby de la Zouch for two or three days; probably we shall reach London on the 15th. From thence you shall hear of my movements. I have a wide way to travel, & the sunniest spot in the prospect is the New Forest.

Lamb’s letter

(4)

Southey had commended Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1823) in Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 524, published 8 July 1823, but commented that the book ‘wants only a sounder religious feeling, to be as delightful as it is original’. Lamb took offence and responded with ‘Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire’, London Magazine, 8 (October 1823), 400–407.

I have not seen, & your account of it is the first intimation which I have received of its temper. It will not disturb mine. I am sorry that he should have acted thus rashly & unreasonably; but no infirmity of mind on his part shall make me act or feel unkindly towards one whose sterling goodness I respect as much as I admire his genius. If the matter of the letter requires answer or explanation from me, I shall probably give it at the end of the Quarterly Review as the writer of the article. Any thing personal, if I notice it at all, I shall notice privately by letter.

(5)

Southey did not refer to this matter in the Quarterly Review, but wrote to Lamb; see Southey to Charles Lamb, [19 November 1823], Letter 4088.

You can hardly imagine how inirritable I am to any attacks thro the press. When I found it have taken occasion to xxx handle Jeffrey,

(6)

As in Southey’s criticism of Edinburgh Review, 35 (July 1821), 422–436 (422), in the letter that Southey wrote to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776.

or found it necessary to take up the pen against Lord Byron,

(7)

Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776.

it has been more with a feeling of strength than of anger, – something like Rumpelstilzchen

(8)

One of the cats at Greta Hall.

feels when he lays his paw upon a rat.

Cuthbert desires me to tell you that that worthy cat (who has recently been created a Marquis) is very well, only that he has a little cough; & moreover that he has shown an improper liking for cream cheese. There is a rival of his, an interloper named Hurleburlebuss who prowls about the house, & we are sometimes awakened by their nightly encounters. I am charged also to send Rumpels love to Donna,

(9)

Caroline Bowles’s cat.

& Cuthberts to you. – There are remembrances moreover from each & all of my womankind, with all of whom you have left such an impression as you would desire to leave. For myself, – but I must have done, for time presses, & the maid is waiting for my dispatches. At present therefore I will say no more – than –

Dear friend – farewell
RS.

Notes

1. Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829), in which Southey as ‘Montesinos’ (man of the mountains) conversed with the ghost of Sir Thomas More (1478–1535; DNB), lawyer, philosopher, statesman and Lord High Chancellor 1529–1532.[back]
2. The Book of the Church (1824), which Southey wished to complete.[back]
3. 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), 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]
4. Southey had commended Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1823) in Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 524, published 8 July 1823, but commented that the book ‘wants only a sounder religious feeling, to be as delightful as it is original’. Lamb took offence and responded with ‘Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire’, London Magazine, 8 (October 1823), 400–407.[back]
5. Southey did not refer to this matter in the Quarterly Review, but wrote to Lamb; see Southey to Charles Lamb, [19 November 1823], Letter 4088.[back]
6. As in Southey’s criticism of Edinburgh Review, 35 (July 1821), 422–436 (422), in the letter that Southey wrote to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776.[back]
7. Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776.[back]
8. One of the cats at Greta Hall.[back]
9. Caroline Bowles’s cat.[back]
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