4104. Robert Southey to Nicholas Lightfoot, 22 December 1823

 

Address: To/ The Reverend Nicholas Lightfoot/ Crediton/ Devonshire
Postmarks: E E/ D 22/ 1823; [partial] DE 22/ 1823; T.P./ Tooting
Endorsement: Dec-23
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. d. 110. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.

22 Dec. 1823
My dear Lightfoot

I can write to you concerning my movements now with as much certainty as any things <arrangement> dependent upon such frail things as health & life will admit. My place is taken for Friday Jany 2 in a coach, which will deposit me the next x day about noon, near Sir John Kennaways

(1)

Sir John Kennaway, 1st Baronet (1758–1836), made a fortune in the East India Company and became a landowner in Devonshire. Southey knew him through his son, Charles Edward Kennaway, who had visited Southey in the Lake District in 1819–1820. The Kennaway home, Escot House, is close to Ottery St Mary.

door. I am to pass that day with his family, the next with Col. Coleridge,

(2)

James Coleridge (1759–1836), the eldest brother of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and father of John Taylor Coleridge and Henry Nelson Coleridge.

Monday & Tuesday with Mr Marryat

(3)

John Marriott (1780–1825; DNB), a clergyman, poet and friend of Walter Scott. He was Curate of St James, Exeter, St Lawrence, Exeter, and St John, Broadclyst. The patron of the latter church was Sir Thomas Acland, who was also a friend of Marriott.

& Sir Thomas Acland, (they will determine their respective days) Wednesday I get to Exeter as early as I can to make my calls there on Mrs Keenan,

(4)

Frances Keenan (d. 1838), an artist and widow of the Irish portrait painter, John Keenan (d. 1819). Southey had first met her in Exeter in 1799.

& the widow of my excellent friend Wade Browne of Ludlow, & then proceed to Crediton, taking chaise if no other ready means of conveyance should offer. Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday I propose to stay with you; – I know your friendship will think the time short, – & I feel it to be so, – but you will perceive that it is four times as much as I allow to any other person in the West, & when you know that I left home on the third of November, & cannot reach it again before the middle of February, – I am sure you will not press me to lengthen an absence which is necessarily so much too long. Monday the 12. I must get to Taunton.

Your last letter – like all your letters – is full of warm-hearted kindness. Very gladly would I bring my daughter to your hospitable home, if it suited the disposal which has been made of her time, & if she was equal (which she is not) to bear the continued fatigue & excitement of my hurried movements. She has too little of the strength of a mountaineer, & too much of that home sickness which mountaineers feel more than any other people. – I may tell you, that her easy & natural manners are thought good proofs of what may be effected by domestic education, & that those persons who were disposed to regard her with friendly feelings for my sake, like her now for her own.

At present she is with our fellow travellers from the North, in Gloucester Place.

(5)

100 Gloucester Place was the home of Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), the widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB), maternal uncle of the Charter sisters 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 Peachy had lent the Charter sisters his home on Derwent Island in 1823. They had travelled south with Southey in November. 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.

I write from Streatham, where I am closely employed in finishing a paper for the QR.

(6)

Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), Travels in New-England and New-York (1821–1822), no. 881 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, reviewed by Southey in Quarterly Review, 30 (October 1823), 1–40, published 17 April 1824.

Tomorrow I expect to finish it. I have still to put the last hand to the B of the Church.

(7)

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

Wednesday will do so much it, that two or three mornings more will bring me to the end desired. I return to town on Thursday to my Xmas dinner, & remain there in Q. Anne Street till my departure from the West

I cannot obtain a frank for this letter because there is no franking it from hence to London. My best wishes to all your fireside. It will be a great disappointment to me not to see John, – for I have no chance of visiting Oxford.

God bless you my dear old friend!
Yrs affectionately
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. Sir John Kennaway, 1st Baronet (1758–1836), made a fortune in the East India Company and became a landowner in Devonshire. Southey knew him through his son, Charles Edward Kennaway, who had visited Southey in the Lake District in 1819–1820. The Kennaway home, Escot House, is close to Ottery St Mary.[back]
2. James Coleridge (1759–1836), the eldest brother of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and father of John Taylor Coleridge and Henry Nelson Coleridge.[back]
3. John Marriott (1780–1825; DNB), a clergyman, poet and friend of Walter Scott. He was Curate of St James, Exeter, St Lawrence, Exeter, and St John, Broadclyst. The patron of the latter church was Sir Thomas Acland, who was also a friend of Marriott.[back]
4. Frances Keenan (d. 1838), an artist and widow of the Irish portrait painter, John Keenan (d. 1819). Southey had first met her in Exeter in 1799.[back]
5. 100 Gloucester Place was the home of Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), the widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB), maternal uncle of the Charter sisters 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 Peachy had lent the Charter sisters his home on Derwent Island in 1823. They had travelled south with Southey in November. 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]
6. Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), Travels in New-England and New-York (1821–1822), no. 881 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, reviewed by Southey in Quarterly Review, 30 (October 1823), 1–40, published 17 April 1824.[back]
7. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
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