4214. Robert Southey to Nicholas Lightfoot, 16 July 1824

 

Address: To/ The Reverend Nicholas Lightfoot/ Crediton/ Devonshire
Stamp: KESWICK/ 298
Endorsement: July-24
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. d. 110. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 16 July. 1824
My dear Lightfoot

The same post which this day brought me your welcome letter, brought also one from my daughter Edith-May, announcing her arrival at Seaton. Had I not waited till I could tell you that she was actually in Devonshire, I should have written to assure you how heartily I rejoiced at seeing your sons name in the newspapers.

(1)

News of the award of the BA (Hons) degree of the University of Oxford to John Prideaux Lightfoot, Bury and Norwich Post, 16 June 1824.

One of the last letters which I received congratulated me upon it (- at which I was very much pleased) & added there could be little doubt of his obtaining the fellowship – which you now tell me he has actually obtained.

(2)

John Prideaux Lightfoot had been awarded a Fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford.

So far he has gone on to your hearts content, & there seems to be every probability of his continuing so to do. He has now to chuse his profession, unless indeed his intention of residing at Oxford implies that the choice is made, & that he has determined upon the Church.

(3)

John Prideaux Lightfoot was ordained in 1832 and later returned to the University of Oxford as Rector of Exeter College 1854–1887; Charles Cuthbert Southey also became a clergyman.

It is the course which I should wish my own son to pursue, because I am persuaded that xx no other course could be so favorable to his moral & intellectual improvement.

My daughter left London on the second of this month, & was nine days on the way to Seaton, – part of the time was past at Font-Hill,

(4)

Fonthill Abbey in Wiltshire, formerly the estate of William Beckford (1760–1844; DNB). He had sold it in 1823 to John Farquhar (1751–1826; DNB), who made his fortune as a gunpowder contractor in Bengal, and thus was possibly a connection of Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB). Edith May Southey was travelling with Lady Malet.

which by her account, is of all fine places the finest, – tho I owe the place xx a grudge for she was put in a damp bed there. She has gone thro a full course of vanities in London, with no danger of being the worse for it, or contracting any hankering desire after such gayeties when they will be no longer within her reach; on the contrary I doubt not that she will return to her parents x her household xxx<habits> of life with a chearful contentment, & a the livelier relish for the pleasures connected with, & inseparable from them. What we have heard from her, & of her, has been alike to our wish. She has been admired where only her appearance & manners could be observed, – & she has been liked wherever she has been better known. I have no ambitious views for her, but would much rather she were to marry an estimable clergyman

(5)

Edith May Southey did indeed marry a clergyman, John Wood Warter, in 1834.

than a man of 5000 £ a year. Were I to die soon – (& my life is I am well aware, a very precarious one) – there would be from 10 to 12,000 £ forthcoming from my effects – divisible in equal shares. If I be xxx live three years, retaining my faculties & the power of using them, xxxxx<there> will be added to this a considerable sum: for the remaining volumes of the Peninsular War

(6)

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

will give me 500 guineas each; my New England poem

(7)

Southey’s unfinished ‘Oliver Newman’, set in New England. A fragment was published posthumously in Oliver Newman: a New-England Tale (Unfinished): with Other Poetical Remains by the Late Robert Southey (London, 1845), pp. 1–90.

will be compleated for which I have been offered 1500 £, – & by that time I shall have finished my own Life & Recollections

(8)

The series of seventeen autobiographical letters that Southey sent to John May 1820–1826, published in Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 1–157.

– which as a Post-obit will be worth at least as much more. – About 3000 £ therefore is what each of my children may expect if I live two or three years longer: – at the worst something more than 2 – if my hand was stopt sooner.

Bertha would be right glad to join her sister & accept your kind invitation, – but she is far off, & fixed for a time with her present friends.

(9)

Bertha was staying with John Rickman and his family.

I am taking daily exercise, – but cannot yet shake off my cold, nor the cough which it has brought with it, & which tho neither violent nor troublesome has taken strong hold. Till it has left me I can neither take wine, nor venture upon tonics, – tho in other respects sensibly in want of both. But I live in hope, & my spirits are such as you have always known them. I brought with me from London a long tin horn, such as the Mail Coach Guards use, only of greater length – & proportionate capacity of sound: – it is such a musical instrument as I should have liked to serenade you with at Oxford, – & now & then I indulge myself with a tune here. But I must confess Isabel plays upon it better than I can do. So much for my amusements, – for my business, I am printing the second volume of the War; preparing a paper upon the Jesuits for the QReview,

(10)

Southey did not complete this paper.

– getting on with the Tale of Paraguay

(11)

A Tale of Paraguay (1825).

– which you will certainly receive in the winter, & making good progress with that meipsead

(12)

A writing about oneself, i.e. Southey’s autobiographical letters to John May.

of which you saw the commencement. This is a very interesting employment & in its progress I must touch upon so many points of general interest, & introduce so much of the literary history of my own times, that I am very well assured it will be esteemed a valuable record & that when I am engaged upon it my time could not be more prudentially bestowed.

We expect Mrs Keenan

(13)

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.

next week – I tell you this to shew you what ought to be thought of the distance between Devonshire & Keswick. In fact when the expence ceases to be an object, the distance is nothing, & you & I must learn to consider it so. – I wished for you particularly some ten days ago when our Floating Island,

(14)

The Floating Island of Derwentwater is a mass of vegetation that rises to the surface every few years. It appeared from 21 June 1824 to the end of September, its first siting since 1819.

as it is called, made its appearance. Sedgewick

(15)

Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873; DNB), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Woodwardian Professor of Geology 1818–1873.

the Geological Professor at Cambridge happened to be here by good fortune, & examined it well. The bottom of the lake in that part consists first of vegetables growing on a thin layer of soft earth, – then a bed of peat six feet thick fxx & this rests upon a stratum of remarkably fine white clay – to which it has little adhesion. The vegetable matter of which the peat is formed is still in a state of decomposition, & produces gas in such abundance as from time to time to render the pxx large portions of the mass buoyant, seperate them from the clay, & lift them to the surface of the water, – a very singular phenomenon which has not yet been observed elsewhere. The force with which this was now done was sufficient to make a rent in the bottom of the lake five or six feet deep & fifty yards long. My best regards to Mrs L – my godfather god-daughter – Kate – Bridget & Nico – not forgetting the new Fellow of Exeter.

(16)

Nicholas Lightfoot married Bridget Prideaux (1768–1856) on 13 July 1801. Their children were: John Prideaux Lightfoot; Frances Jane Lightfoot (1806–1882), Southey’s god-daughter; Catherine Anne Lightfoot (1808–1898); Bridget Mary Lightfoot (1810–1889); and Nicholas Francis Lightfoot (1811–1881), Vicar of Cadbury 1846–1855, Rector of Islip 1855–1881.

Xxxx Nico when he comes to stand in his turn will say νικησω

(17)

‘I conquer’.

I make no doubt, & go thro the paradigm.

(17)

Nicholas Francis Lightfoot, like his brother, John Prideaux Lightfoot, matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1829. He graduated BA 1832, MA 1836, and became a clergyman.

God bless you –
RS.

Notes

1. News of the award of the BA (Hons) degree of the University of Oxford to John Prideaux Lightfoot, Bury and Norwich Post, 16 June 1824.[back]
2. John Prideaux Lightfoot had been awarded a Fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford.[back]
3. John Prideaux Lightfoot was ordained in 1832 and later returned to the University of Oxford as Rector of Exeter College 1854–1887; Charles Cuthbert Southey also became a clergyman.[back]
4. Fonthill Abbey in Wiltshire, formerly the estate of William Beckford (1760–1844; DNB). He had sold it in 1823 to John Farquhar (1751–1826; DNB), who made his fortune as a gunpowder contractor in Bengal, and thus was possibly a connection of Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB). Edith May Southey was travelling with Lady Malet.[back]
5. Edith May Southey did indeed marry a clergyman, John Wood Warter, in 1834.[back]
6. The second and third volumes of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
7. Southey’s unfinished ‘Oliver Newman’, set in New England. A fragment was published posthumously in Oliver Newman: a New-England Tale (Unfinished): with Other Poetical Remains by the Late Robert Southey (London, 1845), pp. 1–90.[back]
8. The series of seventeen autobiographical letters that Southey sent to John May 1820–1826, published in Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 1–157.[back]
9. Bertha was staying with John Rickman and his family.[back]
10. Southey did not complete this paper.[back]
11. A Tale of Paraguay (1825).[back]
12. A writing about oneself, i.e. Southey’s autobiographical letters to John May.[back]
13. 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]
14. The Floating Island of Derwentwater is a mass of vegetation that rises to the surface every few years. It appeared from 21 June 1824 to the end of September, its first siting since 1819.[back]
15. Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873; DNB), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Woodwardian Professor of Geology 1818–1873.[back]
16. Nicholas Lightfoot married Bridget Prideaux (1768–1856) on 13 July 1801. Their children were: John Prideaux Lightfoot; Frances Jane Lightfoot (1806–1882), Southey’s god-daughter; Catherine Anne Lightfoot (1808–1898); Bridget Mary Lightfoot (1810–1889); and Nicholas Francis Lightfoot (1811–1881), Vicar of Cadbury 1846–1855, Rector of Islip 1855–1881.[back]
17. ‘I conquer’.[back]
17. Nicholas Francis Lightfoot, like his brother, John Prideaux Lightfoot, matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1829. He graduated BA 1832, MA 1836, and became a clergyman.[back]
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