4080. Robert Southey to Caroline Bowles, 2 November 1823

 

Address: [in another hand] London Fifth Nov 1823/ Miss Bowles/ Buckland/ Lymington/ Hants/ Fm Rickman
Postmark: FREE/ 5 NO 5/ 1823
Endorsement: No 35 To Miss Caroline Bowles/ Keswick 2 Novr 1823
MS: British Library, Add MS 47889. ALS; 3p. 
Previously published: Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 40–41 [in part].

I once declared in a poem that I never put out the eye of a Cyclops;

(1)

Southey’s unpublished ‘Ode’, line 15; see Southey to Daniel Stuart, 19 December 1799, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Two, Letter 464. In Greek mythology the Cyclops were a race of one-eyed giants.

& I now declare with equal sincerity that I never offered any outrage to the nose of Sir Cloudesly Shovel.

(2)

In the south aisle of Westminster Abbey there is a huge marble monument to Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell (1650–1707; DNB). Its nose is intact. However, in ‘Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire’, London Magazine, 8 (October 1823), 406–407, Lamb had mischievously asked Southey whether he knew anything about the mutilation of the monument, in the nave of Westminster Abbey, of Major John André (1751–1780; DNB), a British officer hanged as a spy by the American revolutionaries. Lamb alleged that the nose was broken off a figure on the monument at the time that Southey was at Westminster Schoo…

You have a good heart, & it stands you in good stead. Would that some of my family had a portion of your courage. But the truth is that your Job’s comforters

(3)

From the Book of Job, where Job is afflicted by God, but the comfort provided by his friends only makes him feel worse.

are as unwise in entertaining their fears as they are in communicating them.

(4)

Caroline Bowles’s outhouses had been robbed and she was worried about the prospect of prosecuting the offenders at Winchester Assizes.

There is danger in acting against smugglers & poachers, because smugglers & poachers think they have natural justice on their side, & have some show of reason for thinking so: they therefore think themselves aggrieved when they are prosecuted for their illicit practises, & feel as if they had a right to revenge themselves upon any one who has taken part against them. But this is not the case with those who have committed a breach of the moral law: they are self-convicted of a known sin, & here in England not even a Bow Street Officer

(5)

Professional police officers based at Bow Street magistrates court since 1753.

has ever suffered the slightest injury from after-revenge, – tho some times very serious ones in the discharge of their duty. – You may therefore sleep in peace. – Perhaps it may <would> lessen in some little degree the unpleasantness of your appearance at Winchester, if you had any acquaintance there; – & I can very well introduce you to Mrs Hill’s sisters

(6)

Elizabeth Heathcote (1773–1855) and Alethea Bigg (1777–1847), two sisters of Catherine Hill, who shared a house at 12 Cathedral Close, Winchester.

who reside in that city. But I shall see you before that time; & persuade you, I hope, not only almost, but wholly, that there are yet hopes & enjoyments in store for you in this world.

Before this reaches you I shall be far on my journey. I am now in all the disquiet & discomfort of preparing for it. We depart on Monday, & if the weather permit us to see all we purpose seeing on the way, it will be just a week before we arrive at Cole Orton. Direct to me at my brothers in Q Anne Street, & remember that a letter from you will always be a pleasure to me. Tell me what stages pass thro Lymington by which I can find my way from the West: I shall be coming from Exeter, most likely just after Xmas, – but of course you shall be acquainted with my movements. My time must be short, – & yet I am sure you will believe me when I say that were inclination alone to be consulted I know not how long it might prove. The work which I carry with me in an unfinished state,

(7)

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

– or rather which I have to do must be done at Streatham before my departure xxx for the West, because it will be wanted for the press. And if this were not the case what inclination should I have to spend my <that> time in composition, which is to be past with you? To be put in the call of silence then would be to endure penance indeed.

This has remained unfinished till the last minute. It is now Sunday night, – my table sadly disfurnished, every thing packed, & my last dispatches on the wing. God bless you

yrs affectionately
RS.

Keswick. 2 Nov. 1823

Notes

1. Southey’s unpublished ‘Ode’, line 15; see Southey to Daniel Stuart, 19 December 1799, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Two, Letter 464. In Greek mythology the Cyclops were a race of one-eyed giants.[back]
2. In the south aisle of Westminster Abbey there is a huge marble monument to Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell (1650–1707; DNB). Its nose is intact. However, in ‘Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire’, London Magazine, 8 (October 1823), 406–407, Lamb had mischievously asked Southey whether he knew anything about the mutilation of the monument, in the nave of Westminster Abbey, of Major John André (1751–1780; DNB), a British officer hanged as a spy by the American revolutionaries. Lamb alleged that the nose was broken off a figure on the monument at the time that Southey was at Westminster School (1788–1792).[back]
3. From the Book of Job, where Job is afflicted by God, but the comfort provided by his friends only makes him feel worse.[back]
4. Caroline Bowles’s outhouses had been robbed and she was worried about the prospect of prosecuting the offenders at Winchester Assizes.[back]
5. Professional police officers based at Bow Street magistrates court since 1753.[back]
6. Elizabeth Heathcote (1773–1855) and Alethea Bigg (1777–1847), two sisters of Catherine Hill, who shared a house at 12 Cathedral Close, Winchester.[back]
7. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
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