4166. Robert Southey to Peter Elmsley, 3 April 1824

 

MS: With the kind permission of the Governing Body of Westminster School. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Nicholas Horsfall, ‘Four Unpublished Letters of Robert Southey’, Notes and Queries, 22.9 (September 1975), 402–403.

Keswick 3d April. 1824
My dear Elmsley

Unluckily for me there prevails an opinion that I am a person of great interest, & can assist any body in any line of life. And what is more to be regretted is, that among many troublesome interxx applications, & not a few impertinent ones, others occasionally occur which make me really wish it were in my power to befriend the applicant.

Some years ago a youth for whom I was much interested (Dusautoy was his name) was cut off by the fever at Cambridge. Both his genius & his attainments were very great, & beyond all doubt if he had lived he would have been a most distinguished person. He was one of a large family, the parents of which (the father is a half pay officer)

(1)

James Du Sautoy (1761–1859) had retired as a Lieutenant in the Royal Marines in 1798 and was barrack-master of the cavalry at Totnes 1803–1822; his wife was Mary Du Sautoy, née Hinton (d. 1851).

have endeavoured by the strictest economy to give their sons those advantages which would be well disposed upon such subjects. One of the sons

(2)

Frederick Dusautoy (c. 1802–1891), younger brother of James Dusautoy. He was admitted as a sizar (i.e. a student receiving financial assistance in return for set duties) at Queen’s College, Cambridge, on 5 July 1824. He graduated BA 1828 and MA 1831, was a Fellow of his College 1830–1835 and became a clergyman. After a long series of curacies, he became Vicar of Mark, near Bridgwater, 1860–1891. Dusautoy also published on a wide range of subjects, including geology.

applied to me lately to get him entered as a sizer at Cambridge. I tried without success,

(3)

Robert Southey to [Samuel Tillbrook], [c. March 1824], Letter 4147.

– there is no vacancy for two years at the College where my interes application was made,

(4)

Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where James Dusautoy was a student 1813–1815.

– & the two tutors of that College who knew & esteemd his poor brother – (Blomfield

(5)

Edward Valentine Blomfield (1788–1816; DNB), a classical scholar and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The other tutor was probably William Augustus Pemberton (1773–1816), a clergyman and Registrar of Cambridge University 1809–1816, who is the only other Fellow of the College who died in the period 1813–1824 and has a monument in the College’s cloister.

was one) – are buried in the same cloysters with him. – He is nearly 26, & of course cannot wait.

Can you procure a Bible-Clerkship

(6)

Bible Clerks were students at Oxford University who received benefits such as reduced fees or free meals in return for set duties, such as reading aloud chapters from the Bible at meals or in chapel.

for him, – or any thing which might contribute to his support? – Devonshire is his county.

I think it is Reginald Heber who has in one of his writings vindicated the Oxford system of servitorship.

(7)

Reginald Heber, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. Lord Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore: with A Life of the Author, and A Critical Examination of his Writings, 15 vols (London, 1822), I, p. vii–ix, no. 2782 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. The term ‘Bible Clerk’ had come into use in preference to that of ‘servitor’, as the duties attached to this role had, in the past, included acting as a servant to other students, and wearing a distinctive plain black gown and round hat.

His arguments seem to me just – if the same state of feeling existed now upon that subject, as prevailed two or three centuries ago. In this respect the system at Cambridge is very much better

Can you tell me whether Francis Bugg

(8)

Francis Bugg (1640–1727; DNB). His collection of over 400 Quaker tracts and books was acquired by Henry Aldrich (1647–1710), Dean of Christ Church, and presented to the College in 1700.

(of unhappy name) left his collection of Quaker books to the Library at Ch. Ch. as he said he intended to do? – My designs upon George Fox

(9)

George Fox (1624–1691; DNB), the founder of Quakerism. Southey intended to write an account of his life but did not do so.

have, as you may suppose, excited a stir throughout all Quakerdom.

You should have given a portrait of South with your edition of his Sermons.

(10)

A new edition by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, of Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, by Robert South, D.D., Prebendary of Westminster, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford (1823), no. 2574 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

To withhold it, looks as if Oxford were ashamed of his ugly physiognomy, which he was not himself, for he prefixed it to each of the six volumes published in his life time.

(11)

Robert South (1634–1716; DNB), the Anglican theologian and preacher. His Sermons were first published in six volumes in 1692.

There is a poem to his memory by Sam. Wesley, who praises him as having been

Against the best of temper, strongly good. (12)

Milman I think could not have read his sermons when he wrote that paper in the last Quarterly.

(13)

A review of Cardinal Jean-Sifrein Maury (1746–1817), Essai sur l’Eloquence de la Chaire (1810) and Edward Irving (1792–1834; DNB), For the Oracles of God, Four Orations; For Judgement to Come, an Argument in Nine Parts (1823) by Henry Hart Milman, Quarterly Review, 29 (July 1823), 283–313, published c. 27 January 1824.

The name of South does not appear there, & there are some remarks of S. upon the different styles of preaching in his days to which he would certainly xxxx have referred if he had seen them.

Yrs very truly
R Southey.

Have you seen Landor’s book?

(14)

Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824).

– There were many passages in it, which if they had not been cut out, would have insured him the stiletto, or the sand-bag – if that pleasant mode of murder is still in use with the Italians

Notes

1. James Du Sautoy (1761–1859) had retired as a Lieutenant in the Royal Marines in 1798 and was barrack-master of the cavalry at Totnes 1803–1822; his wife was Mary Du Sautoy, née Hinton (d. 1851).[back]
2. Frederick Dusautoy (c. 1802–1891), younger brother of James Dusautoy. He was admitted as a sizar (i.e. a student receiving financial assistance in return for set duties) at Queen’s College, Cambridge, on 5 July 1824. He graduated BA 1828 and MA 1831, was a Fellow of his College 1830–1835 and became a clergyman. After a long series of curacies, he became Vicar of Mark, near Bridgwater, 1860–1891. Dusautoy also published on a wide range of subjects, including geology.[back]
3. Robert Southey to [Samuel Tillbrook], [c. March 1824], Letter 4147.[back]
4. Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where James Dusautoy was a student 1813–1815.[back]
5. Edward Valentine Blomfield (1788–1816; DNB), a classical scholar and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The other tutor was probably William Augustus Pemberton (1773–1816), a clergyman and Registrar of Cambridge University 1809–1816, who is the only other Fellow of the College who died in the period 1813–1824 and has a monument in the College’s cloister.[back]
6. Bible Clerks were students at Oxford University who received benefits such as reduced fees or free meals in return for set duties, such as reading aloud chapters from the Bible at meals or in chapel.[back]
7. Reginald Heber, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. Lord Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore: with A Life of the Author, and A Critical Examination of his Writings, 15 vols (London, 1822), I, p. vii–ix, no. 2782 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. The term ‘Bible Clerk’ had come into use in preference to that of ‘servitor’, as the duties attached to this role had, in the past, included acting as a servant to other students, and wearing a distinctive plain black gown and round hat.[back]
8. Francis Bugg (1640–1727; DNB). His collection of over 400 Quaker tracts and books was acquired by Henry Aldrich (1647–1710), Dean of Christ Church, and presented to the College in 1700.[back]
9. George Fox (1624–1691; DNB), the founder of Quakerism. Southey intended to write an account of his life but did not do so.[back]
10. A new edition by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, of Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, by Robert South, D.D., Prebendary of Westminster, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford (1823), no. 2574 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
11. Robert South (1634–1716; DNB), the Anglican theologian and preacher. His Sermons were first published in six volumes in 1692.[back]
12. Samuel Wesley (1690/91–1739; DNB), ‘To the Memory of the Reverend Dr. South’, line 12, Poems on Several Occasions (London, 1736), p. 227.[back]
13. A review of Cardinal Jean-Sifrein Maury (1746–1817), Essai sur l’Eloquence de la Chaire (1810) and Edward Irving (1792–1834; DNB), For the Oracles of God, Four Orations; For Judgement to Come, an Argument in Nine Parts (1823) by Henry Hart Milman, Quarterly Review, 29 (July 1823), 283–313, published c. 27 January 1824.[back]
14. Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824).[back]
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