4075. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 27 October 1823

 

Address: To/ G. C. Bedford Esqre/Post Office/ Dover
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 30 OC 30/ 1823
Endorsements: 27. Octor. 1823.
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. c. 26. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.

My dear G.

I have received the four ten pound bills, & thank you for them. The Pension receipt

(1)

A receipt for Southey’s government pension of £200 per annum.

came under the same cover, & I have returned it according to your directions.

I am almost angry with you for not holyday making here instead of where you are. We have had delightful weather for the last ten days, & had you been here, my departure should have been delayed as long as you could have stayed, & both you & Henry & Miss Page would have laid in more health & spirits & enjoyment than the sea shore can supply.

If no ill hap intervene I shall reach the Doxtors on Saturday the 15th. We start on the 3d & my very inside seems to be unsettled at the thought. Me miserable!

(2)

John Milton (1607–1674; DNB), Paradise Lost (1667), Book 4, lines 73–74: ‘Me miserable! which way shall I fly/ Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?’

a lobster cannot be more uncomfortable when he casts his shell, than I am at creeping out of mine. – My head quarters will be at Streatham whither I shall probably remove on the Tuesday after my arrival. The time of xxx our arrival is uncertain, because we shall come in the coach from Loughborough, & whether that may time its movements so as to carry us by day or by night is what I have no means of learning till I get to Cole Orton, my convenience would best be suited by getting into the coach in the afternoon & being landed in the morning. In the natural course of my proceedings you would be the first person I should look for; – upon the supposition that you do not arrive before Sunday evening I shall look for you on Monday at the [Southey inserts symbol]

(3)

Here Southey makes a chequered mark consisting of three rightward sloping lines cross hatched with three leftward sloping lines. i.e. the Exchequer.

God bless you
RS.

I have received an invitation to Limerick, to visit the Bishop. My answer will be “not till the next rebellion is over.”

(4)

There was a great deal of rural unrest in Ireland 1821–1824 and the Catholic Association had been founded in 1823 as a mass organisation to campaign for political rights for Catholics.

Keswick. 27 Oct. 1823

Notes

1. A receipt for Southey’s government pension of £200 per annum.[back]
2. John Milton (1607–1674; DNB), Paradise Lost (1667), Book 4, lines 73–74: ‘Me miserable! which way shall I fly/ Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?’[back]
3. Here Southey makes a chequered mark consisting of three rightward sloping lines cross hatched with three leftward sloping lines. i.e. the Exchequer.[back]
4. There was a great deal of rural unrest in Ireland 1821–1824 and the Catholic Association had been founded in 1823 as a mass organisation to campaign for political rights for Catholics.[back]
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