4245. Robert Southey to Edith May Southey, 10 September 1824

 

Address: [in another hand] Portsmouth Fourteenth Sept./ 1824/ Miss Southey/ Revd. N. Lightfoots/ Crediton/ Devon/ If Miss S. gone,/ Alter the Address/ & forward by Post./ Free/ JRickman
Stamped: PORTSMOUTH/ SE 14/ 182x/ 73
MS: British Library, Add MS 47888. ALS; 4p. 
Unpublished.

Keswick. Friday 10 Sept. 1824
My dear EMay

Your last letter required an answer to some particulars, & would have had it sooner if I had been less engaged. Imprimis

(1)

‘in the first place’.

you will assure Lady Malet – what I hope she needs not be assured – that we shall be heartily glad to see her son,

(2)

Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), the widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB) had eight sons; it is not clear which of them intended to visit Keswick.

– & to make his visit as agreable to him as we can. In the second place go you to Longmans some day when you are in town & look out, or order, for the Miss Charters,

(3)

Louisa Charter; and Elizabeth Charter (1782–1860), sisters of William Peachy’s first wife, Emma Peachy. Peachy had lent them his house on Derwent Isle, and Lady Malet and the Charters had accompanied Southey and Edith May Southey to London from Keswick in November 1823.

& for any one else whom you wish to remember in this way, any books of mine that you may think will be most acceptable. – One thing more while it is in my mind, – ask Dame Elizabeth if she knows where I can direct to Senhouse.

We have heard of you this day by a very welcome letter from my old friend your kind host. If I had Peter Schlemils boots,

(4)

Peter Schlemihl, the main character in Adelbert von Chamisso (1781–1838), Peter Schlemihls Wundersame Geschichte (1814), had boots that allowed him to take strides of seven leagues.

or if wishes were wings, I would be with you when I take the air

I have lectured Sara upon the imprudence of sending off such large packets at once, instead of dispatching them sheet by sheet as they are finished. By which means you would <have> as much pleasure in receiving every one, as you have had in getting the whole. One of the great arts of life is to multiply our enjoyment by husbanding them. For example two balls beginning at the hour of eight & lasting till eleven would be better than one beginning at ten & lasting till four.

We expect Clarkson tomorrow. All other news I shall leave to my Lady, who seems to have the art of making a little news go a great way. Only I must tell you that I have with great propriety conferred distinct names upon the two Catbells, – of which the one is henceforth to be called Hurleybell & the other Bellrumple.

(5)

An in-joke about renaming the two summits of Cat Bells, a fell near Keswick, after two of the Southey family cats (Rumpelstilzchen and Hurlyburlybuss).

I mean to write a poem upon the subject in the manner of Mr Wordsworth ‘on the naming of places”

(6)

William Wordsworth, ‘Poems on the Naming of Places’, Lyrical Ballads, with a few Other Poems, 2 vols (London, 1800), II, pp. 175–196. Southey did not write an equivalent poem, naming fells after cats, in the manner of Wordsworth naming features of Grasmere after family members, though he had addressed to Edith May Southey his ‘Memoirs of the Cats of Greta Hall’, The Doctor, 7 vols (London, 1834–1847), VII, pp. 582–596; see Southey to Edith May Southey, 18 June 1824, Letter 4202.

– & you shall receive it whenever that intention is fulfilled.

No more at present – for I have other dispatches to make ready for this nights post. Axx xxxx xxx xxx xxxxx xxxx My kindest remembrances to Mr & Mrs L.

(7)

Nicholas Lightfoot had married Bridget Prideaux (1768–1856) on 13 July 1801.

my goddaughter Kate, Bridget & Nico,

(8)

Frances Jane Lightfoot (1806–1882), Southey’s goddaughter; 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.

not forgetting the Fellow of Exeter, whom I shall be heartily glad to see next year, & still more so if he will bring his father with him. I am under a half promise of going to the Bp of Limerick early in May – when I mean if possible to run away from my summer catarrh.

(9)

Southey visited the Low Countries rather than Ireland in 1825.

But I shall return by the vacation & be ready for a campaign among the mountains

All well. The Cattle

(10)

Southey’s younger children, Kate Southey, Isabel Southey and Charles Cuthbert Southey.

are gone to Miss Bristows

(11)

Possibly Miss Ann Bristow (1765–1842) of Portinscale.

this evening -

God bless you my dear child
Yrs affectionately
RS.

Notes

1. ‘in the first place’.[back]
2. Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), the widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB) had eight sons; it is not clear which of them intended to visit Keswick.[back]
3. Louisa Charter; and Elizabeth Charter (1782–1860), sisters of William Peachy’s first wife, Emma Peachy. Peachy had lent them his house on Derwent Isle, and Lady Malet and the Charters had accompanied Southey and Edith May Southey to London from Keswick in November 1823.[back]
4. Peter Schlemihl, the main character in Adelbert von Chamisso (1781–1838), Peter Schlemihls Wundersame Geschichte (1814), had boots that allowed him to take strides of seven leagues.[back]
5. An in-joke about renaming the two summits of Cat Bells, a fell near Keswick, after two of the Southey family cats (Rumpelstilzchen and Hurlyburlybuss).[back]
6. William Wordsworth, ‘Poems on the Naming of Places’, Lyrical Ballads, with a few Other Poems, 2 vols (London, 1800), II, pp. 175–196. Southey did not write an equivalent poem, naming fells after cats, in the manner of Wordsworth naming features of Grasmere after family members, though he had addressed to Edith May Southey his ‘Memoirs of the Cats of Greta Hall’, The Doctor, 7 vols (London, 1834–1847), VII, pp. 582–596; see Southey to Edith May Southey, 18 June 1824, Letter 4202.[back]
7. Nicholas Lightfoot had married Bridget Prideaux (1768–1856) on 13 July 1801.[back]
8. Frances Jane Lightfoot (1806–1882), Southey’s goddaughter; 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]
9. Southey visited the Low Countries rather than Ireland in 1825.[back]
10. Southey’s younger children, Kate Southey, Isabel Southey and Charles Cuthbert Southey.[back]
11. Possibly Miss Ann Bristow (1765–1842) of Portinscale.[back]
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