4258. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 4 October 1824

 

Address: To/ G. C. Bedford Esqre/ Exchequer/ Westminster
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ xx OC xx/ 18x4
Endorsement: Confidential./ 4th Octor 1824
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. c. 26. ALS; 3p.
Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 186–187 [in part].

Keswick. 4 Oct. 1824.
My dear G.

Murray has sent me a draft for the article, saying it will appear in the next number, & not saying a word concerning any desired alteration.

(1)

Southey’s review of John Johnson (1769–1833; DNB), Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Hayley, Esq. the Friend and Biographer of Cowper, Written by Himself; with Extracts from his Private Correspondence, and Unpublished Poetry; and Memoirs of his Son Thomas Alphonso Hayley, the Young Sculptor (1823), no. 1179 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. It was published in Quarterly Review, 31 (March 1825), 263–311. Southey had hoped it might appear in Quarterly Review, 30 (January 1824), published 28 August 1824.

His letter states that having conversed with Heber & “some other literary friends” upon my proposed History of the Monastic Orders

(2)

This work was never completed.

“he now comprehends its probable interest & popularity” & shall be happy to come to “closer quarters upon the subject.” – he says something of future papers for the QR asking me to undertake the Pepys Memoirs

(3)

Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq. F.R.S.: Secretary to the Admiralty in the Reigns of Charles II and James II. Comprising his Diary from 1659 to 1669, Deciphered by the Rev. John Smith, From the Original Short-Hand MS. in the Pepysian Library, and a Selection from his Private Correspondence (1825), edited by Richard Griffin, 3rd Baron Braybrooke (1783–1858). This was the first edition of the diary of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703; DNB). A later edition from 1828 was no. 2208 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Southey did not write on this subject for the Quarterly Review.

& Sir Th. Brownes Works,

(4)

Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682; DNB) was a doctor and writer on a huge range of subjects. ‘The Whole Works and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Browne, Knt. M. D. of Norwich’ was being advertised at this time as forthcoming with Longmans, for example, in the London Courier and Evening Gazette, 2 October 1824. This was an early indication of Simon Wilkin’s edition, which did not appear until 1835–1836. Southey acquired a copy and it became no. 376 in the sale catalogue of his library.

– & writes in a strain of profound civility, – requesting a brief xxx sketch of my monastic plan. – I have told him little more than that it may be included in six octavo volumes, & comprizes matter hardly less varied & extensive than Gibbons Decline & Fall of the Rom. Empire.

(5)

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794; DNB), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1789), published in six volumes, no. 1099 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

If he offers me 500 £ per volume I will ere long make it my chief employment; but he shall not have it for less, & I am in no haste to proceed with the negociation being at present sufficiently employed & to my hearts content.

The medical practitioner would not have puzzled you, if fortune had permitted us to have been somewhat <more> together during the last ten years. Yet you have heard from me the name of Dr Daniel Dove,

(6)

Dr Daniel Dove was the central figure in Southey’s The Doctor (1834–1847).

& something I think of the Tristam-ish, Butler-ish plan

(7)

One inspiration for The Doctor was the stories about ‘The Butler’, a mock-heroic figure, that Bedford and Southey had developed as boys; another was Laurence Sterne (1713–1768; DNB), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759–1767).

of his history, which, if the secret be but kept, must I think inevitably excite curiosity as well as notice. I have lately taken a pleasant spell at it & have something more than a volume ready, – that is to say something more than half of what I propose to publish, following it or not with as much more according to its sale & my own inclination. One reason why I wished for you here at this time was to <have> shewn it you – & to have had your help, for you could have excellently helped me, & I think would have been moved in spirit so to do. If I finish it during the winter, of which there is good hope I will devise some pretext for going to town, where I must be while it is printed to avoid the transmission of proofs, by which it would be easy – from calculation of time, to ascertain how far they had travelled & so of course to discover the author, – to whom the printers are to have no clue.

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. Southey’s review of John Johnson (1769–1833; DNB), Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Hayley, Esq. the Friend and Biographer of Cowper, Written by Himself; with Extracts from his Private Correspondence, and Unpublished Poetry; and Memoirs of his Son Thomas Alphonso Hayley, the Young Sculptor (1823), no. 1179 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. It was published in Quarterly Review, 31 (March 1825), 263–311. Southey had hoped it might appear in Quarterly Review, 30 (January 1824), published 28 August 1824.[back]
2. This work was never completed.[back]
3. Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq. F.R.S.: Secretary to the Admiralty in the Reigns of Charles II and James II. Comprising his Diary from 1659 to 1669, Deciphered by the Rev. John Smith, From the Original Short-Hand MS. in the Pepysian Library, and a Selection from his Private Correspondence (1825), edited by Richard Griffin, 3rd Baron Braybrooke (1783–1858). This was the first edition of the diary of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703; DNB). A later edition from 1828 was no. 2208 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Southey did not write on this subject for the Quarterly Review.[back]
4. Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682; DNB) was a doctor and writer on a huge range of subjects. ‘The Whole Works and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Browne, Knt. M. D. of Norwich’ was being advertised at this time as forthcoming with Longmans, for example, in the London Courier and Evening Gazette, 2 October 1824. This was an early indication of Simon Wilkin’s edition, which did not appear until 1835–1836. Southey acquired a copy and it became no. 376 in the sale catalogue of his library.[back]
5. Edward Gibbon (1737–1794; DNB), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1789), published in six volumes, no. 1099 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
6. Dr Daniel Dove was the central figure in Southey’s The Doctor (1834–1847).[back]
7. One inspiration for The Doctor was the stories about ‘The Butler’, a mock-heroic figure, that Bedford and Southey had developed as boys; another was Laurence Sterne (1713–1768; DNB), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759–1767).[back]
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