4148. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, [c. 1 March 1824]

 

Address: To/ Dr Southey./ 15. Queen Anne Street/ Cavendish Square/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 1 MR 1/ 1824
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Don. d. 4. ALS; 4p. 
Unpublished.
Note on MS: This letter is written on a sheet of paper printed at the head with the following: TO BE/ PUBLISHED/ BY/ SUBSCRIPTION, IN THREE VOLS. OCTAVO,/ PRICE, £2. S2./ (The money to be paid on delivery,)/ A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE/ WEST INDIES,/ BY CAPTAIN THOMAS SOUTHEY, COMMANDER/ ROYAL NAVY. [Tom Southey’s Chronological History of the West Indies (1827) was finally published by Longmans.]
Dating note: Dating from postmark.

My dear Harry

This is an ugly specimen of Keswick printing, Tom never having thought either of inspecting <it> himself before it was struck off, or of desiring the Printer to let me do it for him. However it answers its purpose, as he has left me a quire of them to get rid of, this is the first use I make of paper smooth enough to be very disagreable. I found him equally out of spirits & out of humour, – complaining that he has only been able to raise five pounds this year, & that by begging from my Uncle. This is the only intimation he ever gave me of ever having had recourse to him. A draft for 20 £ which I gave him has so compleatly restored his temper, as to make the change observable to those who know nothing of the cause. As soon as that supply is gone, no doubt he will return to the old subject, & urge me to get something for him – for that it is in my power to do this is a persuasion in which he seems determined to persist. – Do not touch upon this subject in your reply.

I am vexed as well as disappointed that there has been no letter from E May since my return because I am anxious to hear of the little girl.

Some five minutes after I had seated myself in the stage it occurred to me that I had left you to pay the hackney coachman, – for an agreable ride to the Bull & Mouth. This arose from the same sort of hurry which made me leave the great coat behind when I set out for Norwich, – both in some degree proof that my wits are a little the worse for wear, & are not as prompt on xxxxxx sudden occasion as they used to be.

The consignment of books from Norwich has arrived, & a parcel from Longmans. The cargo from Q Ann Street I do not look for before Thursday next. I found the long expected box sent by Landor from Florence & have made room for all these additions, by converting duodecimo shelves in the Organ Room

(1)

A room at Greta Hall that used to contain an organ when it was used by William Jackson; it was formerly Coleridge’s study.

into octavo ones, & making octavo shelves in the passage carry a front-rank of diminutives, – thus after a manner creating space. An extension of this system will give accommodation for the increase of the next seven years if I should live so long.

I am going on with the War,

(2)

The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

so that no time will be lost by waiting for the Catalan history,

(3)

Southey had read John Mitford’s ‘On Spanish Literature, with some Account of Francisco de Olivarez’, New Monthly Magazine, 10 (October 1818), 221–223. It mentioned Olivarez’s Account of the War in Catalonia, published in four volumes at Seville in 1815; Anecdotes of Chiefs Employed in the Catalan War (1816); and Memoirs of the Spanish Monarchy to the Abdication of Charles 4 & the Usurpation of Joseph Bonaparte (1816). However, none of these works seem to exist. Southey had already asked Murray to try and acquire them; see Southey to John Murray: 10 July 1820, The Collected Letters of Robert So…

having a good supply in advance when that comes I shall be able to feed the press well. This is my morning work & for the evening I have taken the Tale of Paraguay

(4)

A Tale of Paraguay (1825).

in hand. And now that my arrears of letters are well nigh cleared off this poem will proceed briskly I trust & with little interruption to its completion.

The Bp of London writes thus to me concerning the Methodists “your communication

(5)

Southey had written to the Bishop of London on 20 February 1824. His letter is currently untraced. It enclosed a letter of 13 January 1824 that Southey had received from Mark Robinson (d. 1836), a Beverley draper, who was seeking to lead a group of local Methodists into union with the Church of England. Robinson’s letter is published in Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 161–164.

is very interesting & important. Great difficulties I fear lie in the way of an open & formal reunion with the body of the Church; & I am apprehensive the movement, if it has any effect, will terminate in swelling the numbers, & perhaps the reputation of a party, which counts among its members many exemplary Clergymen not sufficiently alive either to the necessity of order or to the prejudice resulting to religion from the aspersions thrown on the characters of their brethren, who differ with them in opinion on particular points. I am however not without hopes that in certain situations, more especially in parts of the colonies a union of purpose & action at least may silently take place, which under discreet management would be productive of much advantage to the one great cause: – but this must be effected by prudent use of opportunities, & not I think by formal treaty.”

(6)

William Howley to Southey, 25 February 1824, Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 165–166.

– I should like you to read this to John Coleridge when you have an opportunity

The Bp writes in high terms of my BC.

(7)

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

wishes that references had been given & that it might be published in a reduced form for the benefit of the lower classes. It cannot fail to be popular, he says, from the beauty of its execution.

Let me hear of you. Tell Robert

(8)

Robert Southey, Jnr (b. 1817), Henry Herbert Southey’s eldest son.

his letter was received with great delight. – Love to him & to his Mother. Love to Charles

(9)

Charles Gonne Southey (1819–1861), later an army officer in India and Henry Herbert Southey’s second surviving son.

also, but if a year or two should elapse before see him, I shall not be able to give him three jumps again unless my strength increases in proportion to his weight. – I miss your Burgundy but I have some pheasant-eyed Zante

(10)

A sparkling drink that Edith May Southey had made using the plant Pheasant’s-eye. Southey compares it to the wine from the Ionian island of Zante (Zakynthos). The island was most famous for Lianoroidi, a sweet white wine, the sort most favoured by Southey.

(EMays making) which is verily as good as Champag[MS obscured]

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. A room at Greta Hall that used to contain an organ when it was used by William Jackson; it was formerly Coleridge’s study.[back]
2. The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
3. Southey had read John Mitford’s ‘On Spanish Literature, with some Account of Francisco de Olivarez’, New Monthly Magazine, 10 (October 1818), 221–223. It mentioned Olivarez’s Account of the War in Catalonia, published in four volumes at Seville in 1815; Anecdotes of Chiefs Employed in the Catalan War (1816); and Memoirs of the Spanish Monarchy to the Abdication of Charles 4 & the Usurpation of Joseph Bonaparte (1816). However, none of these works seem to exist. Southey had already asked Murray to try and acquire them; see Southey to John Murray: 10 July 1820, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3509; 27 February 1821, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3641; 11 June 1821, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3693; and 27 July 1822, Letter 3877; and 1 November [1822], Letter 3911. Murray had then written to Spain to try and obtain these books for Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832), and Herbert Hill had also offered to help. Finally, Southey had sought the assistance of George Canning.[back]
4. A Tale of Paraguay (1825).[back]
5. Southey had written to the Bishop of London on 20 February 1824. His letter is currently untraced. It enclosed a letter of 13 January 1824 that Southey had received from Mark Robinson (d. 1836), a Beverley draper, who was seeking to lead a group of local Methodists into union with the Church of England. Robinson’s letter is published in Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 161–164.[back]
6. William Howley to Southey, 25 February 1824, Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 165–166.[back]
7. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
8. Robert Southey, Jnr (b. 1817), Henry Herbert Southey’s eldest son.[back]
9. Charles Gonne Southey (1819–1861), later an army officer in India and Henry Herbert Southey’s second surviving son.[back]
10. A sparkling drink that Edith May Southey had made using the plant Pheasant’s-eye. Southey compares it to the wine from the Ionian island of Zante (Zakynthos). The island was most famous for Lianoroidi, a sweet white wine, the sort most favoured by Southey.[back]
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