4277. Robert Southey to Mary Ann Watts Hughes, 12 November 1824

 

Address: To/ Mrs Hughes/ Amen Corner/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 15 NO 15/ 1824
Seal: [partial, illegible]
MS: The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, Misc 3800. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 12 Nov. 1824
My dear Madam

Upon the receipt of your letter

(1)

Mary Anne Watts Hughes was canvassing support among the Governors of the Asylum for the Support and Education of the Deaf and Dumb Children of the Poor, founded in 1792 by John Townsend (1757–1826; DNB), to secure the admission of some children known to her.

I wrote immediately to Lady Lonsdale, & have this day received her answer. She promises her votes & Lord L.s, & adds that Sir James Graham of Portland Place

(2)

Sir James Graham, 1st Baronet (1753–1825), a London lawyer and representative of the Lowther interest as MP for Cockermouth 1802–1805, Wigtown Boroughs 1805–1806, Cockermouth 1806–1812 and Carlisle 1812–1825.

who is well acquainted with many of the Governors will use his influence in favour of the persons you recommend. She speaks too of the assistance of other friends, – so that I trust the application may prove an useful one. – I see that the average expenditure of this Institution is stated at about two thousand a year. You tell me that there are always four times as many poor creatures trying for admission as can be taken in. How easy would it be for Government to vote an annual sum for enlarging this Asylum, so as to take in all the poor creatures who are so pitiably qualified for admission. Ten thousand a year would do it, – & the Ministers who should propose such a grant would obtain a much greater degree of popularity than they would get or deserve by remitting a million in taxation. Something to this effect I will state in the Colloquies with which I am now busied,

(3)

Southey did not take up this issue in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829).

– a book which will xxx contain something stronger than what old Thomas Adams calls toothless truths.

(4)

Southey used this quotation in Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Letters to Charles Butler, Esq. Comprising Essays on the Romish Religion and Vindicating the Book of the Church (London, 1826), p. 17. His source was possibly Thomas Adams (1583–1652; DNB), Diseases of the Soule a Discourse Divine, Morall, and Physicall (London, 1616), p. 29.

But I will whisper it to Wynn first, in the hope that Government may take the credit of such a measure themselves, – & not wait till it is proposed by an Opposition Member, – which is their usual way of doing any thing that ought to be done.

The Advertisement which has made you look for my second volume this month, is a lying one.

(5)

‘In November will be published, The Second Volume of the History of the Late War in Spain and Portugal. By Robert Southey. Printing for John Murray, Albermarle-street’, Morning Post, 26 October 1824. The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) did not appear until 1827.

The volume cannot by possibility be ready before May. – Never believe booksellers. I could tell you some truths which have teeth, about them; – tho it must be confessed the advantage of biting is on their side. What you say about the Quarterly does not surprize me. It is in ill-natured hands, & will not be delivered into the management of a better spirit, if there be any possibility of keeping it where it is. The Devil of malignity possesses it, & that is a most difficult Devil to cast out.

If you have not heard of Edith by this time, it is proper I should inform you that her plans were wholly disconcerted, by Lady Malets

(6)

Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB).

being suddenly called away to Winchester where one of her sons

(7)

Octavius Warre Malet (1811–1891), the eighth son of Lady Susanna Malet and Sir Charles Malet. Octavius Warre Malet served in the East India Company before retiring to Somerset in 1864 and playing a leading role in the restoration of Taunton Castle.

was in extreme danger after the measles. My daughter was left in consequence at Exeter till she could find a good convoy; & instead of leaving that place of on the 25th of last month, did not start from it till the 5th of this. She is now with her godmother, Mrs Gonne– 16 York Place – Baker Street.

I gather from your letter, what I did not know before, that Elmlsey has suffered a paralytic seizure, supervening upon the renewed attack of his former disease. That he had had a relapse I knew. If there had been any better tidings I should certainly have heard from Bedford. – & that their [MS torn] none but what are mournful, is probably the reason why I have not heard from Wynn. – There is no possible calamity wh[MS torn] regard with so much fear as this.

Dr Stoddart was good enough to send me the N Times with his remarks upon Capt Medwins book

(8)

Thomas Medwin (1788–1869; DNB), Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron: Noted During a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the Years 1821 and 1822 (1824). In New Times, 25–27 October 1824, John Stoddart (1773–1856; DNB) used the newspaper he edited to comment extensively on Byron and Medwin’s Conversations. In the final article of 27 October 1824, Stoddart paid particular attention to defending Southey against Byron’s ‘vindictive hatred’ and attacking Byron’s The Vision of Judgment (1822), which had parodied Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (1821).

– (Lord Byron’s Blunderbuss

(9)

Speaking of David Mallet’s (c. 1705–1765; DNB), edition of the Works (1754) of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751; DNB), Samuel Johnson (1709–1784; DNB) declared of Bolingbroke that ‘he was a scoundrel, and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward because he had not the resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman, to draw the trigger after his death!’ (James Boswell (1740–1795; DNB), Life of Samuel Johnson, 3rd edn (London, 1799), p. 312). Southey transferred this description of Mallet to Medwi…

I call the said Captain.) – I am vindictive enough to wish two things; – that his Lordship could have known how impossible it was for him to give me a moments pain by any effort of his pen, – & that he had lived to read Landor’s Conversations, less for the irritation he would have experienced at what is there said of himself,

(10)

Dialogue XII of Landor’s Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824) I, pp. [154]–165, between Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715; DNB), Bishop of Salisbury 1689–1715 and ‘Humphrey Hardcastle’. On pp. 160–164 Byron was satirised as ‘Mr. George Nelly’.

than for the deep mortification which the sense of Landors superiority would have sent into his inmost soul. – Landor writes me word that he has sent over a third volume.

(11)

The third volume of Imaginary Conversations did not appear until 1828.

I am looking now for Canterbury

(12)

William Woolnoth (1780–1837), A Graphical Illustration of the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Canterbury (1816), no. 2916 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. It was a present from Thomas Hughes.

by every carrier. – It travels by the slow waggon, – & I know not whether my own Church

(13)

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

is moving at any faster rate. As for the State

(14)

Southey did not write ‘The Book of the State’ as a companion to The Book of the Church (1824).

I can tell you nothing more than that beginning to have some little prudence, (which is somewhat late in the day when on the death side of fifty,) – I shall probably work up materials which have long been collected, before I undertake any thing new.

With kindest remembrances to Dr Hughes – (in which my household join) – & to your son

(15)

John Hughes (1790–1857; DNB), the son of Mary Anne Watts Hughes and a miscellaneous writer.

– believe me my Dear Madam

Yrs very truly
Robert Southey.

Your friend Lady Greenlys

(16)

Elizabeth Greenly (1771–1839), the daughter and heiress of William Greenly (1741–1834) of Titley Court, Herefordshire. In 1811 she married Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin (1759–1839; DNB).

family was closely connected with mine – before I was born – Her father’s sister,

(17)

Frances Greenly (d. 1763), the half-sister of William Greenly, married Herbert Bradford (1701–1768), a Herefordshire clergyman, Curate of Shobdon 1728–1768, Rector of Cefyn-Lys 1748–1768 and Vicar of Aymestry 1762–1768. Bradford was the maternal uncle of Southey’s mother. Elizabeth Tyler, Southey’s aunt, lived with Bradford for much of her youth.

was Aunt by marriage to my mother. I past a day at Titley one & thirty years ago, & saw Miss Greenly (as she was then) exhibit the next day at a Foxophilite

(18)

A meeting in support of Charles James Fox (1749–1806; DNB) and his Whig group, who opposed the war with France, declared in 1793.

meeting. – I have never seen her since.

Notes

1. Mary Anne Watts Hughes was canvassing support among the Governors of the Asylum for the Support and Education of the Deaf and Dumb Children of the Poor, founded in 1792 by John Townsend (1757–1826; DNB), to secure the admission of some children known to her.[back]
2. Sir James Graham, 1st Baronet (1753–1825), a London lawyer and representative of the Lowther interest as MP for Cockermouth 1802–1805, Wigtown Boroughs 1805–1806, Cockermouth 1806–1812 and Carlisle 1812–1825.[back]
3. Southey did not take up this issue in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829).[back]
4. Southey used this quotation in Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Letters to Charles Butler, Esq. Comprising Essays on the Romish Religion and Vindicating the Book of the Church (London, 1826), p. 17. His source was possibly Thomas Adams (1583–1652; DNB), Diseases of the Soule a Discourse Divine, Morall, and Physicall (London, 1616), p. 29.[back]
5. ‘In November will be published, The Second Volume of the History of the Late War in Spain and Portugal. By Robert Southey. Printing for John Murray, Albermarle-street’, Morning Post, 26 October 1824. The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) did not appear until 1827.[back]
6. Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB).[back]
7. Octavius Warre Malet (1811–1891), the eighth son of Lady Susanna Malet and Sir Charles Malet. Octavius Warre Malet served in the East India Company before retiring to Somerset in 1864 and playing a leading role in the restoration of Taunton Castle.[back]
8. Thomas Medwin (1788–1869; DNB), Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron: Noted During a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the Years 1821 and 1822 (1824). In New Times, 25–27 October 1824, John Stoddart (1773–1856; DNB) used the newspaper he edited to comment extensively on Byron and Medwin’s Conversations. In the final article of 27 October 1824, Stoddart paid particular attention to defending Southey against Byron’s ‘vindictive hatred’ and attacking Byron’s The Vision of Judgment (1822), which had parodied Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (1821).[back]
9. Speaking of David Mallet’s (c. 1705–1765; DNB), edition of the Works (1754) of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751; DNB), Samuel Johnson (1709–1784; DNB) declared of Bolingbroke that ‘he was a scoundrel, and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward because he had not the resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman, to draw the trigger after his death!’ (James Boswell (1740–1795; DNB), Life of Samuel Johnson, 3rd edn (London, 1799), p. 312). Southey transferred this description of Mallet to Medwin.[back]
10. Dialogue XII of Landor’s Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824) I, pp. [154]–165, between Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715; DNB), Bishop of Salisbury 1689–1715 and ‘Humphrey Hardcastle’. On pp. 160–164 Byron was satirised as ‘Mr. George Nelly’.[back]
11. The third volume of Imaginary Conversations did not appear until 1828.[back]
12. William Woolnoth (1780–1837), A Graphical Illustration of the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Canterbury (1816), no. 2916 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. It was a present from Thomas Hughes.[back]
13. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
14. Southey did not write ‘The Book of the State’ as a companion to The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
15. John Hughes (1790–1857; DNB), the son of Mary Anne Watts Hughes and a miscellaneous writer.[back]
16. Elizabeth Greenly (1771–1839), the daughter and heiress of William Greenly (1741–1834) of Titley Court, Herefordshire. In 1811 she married Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin (1759–1839; DNB).[back]
17. Frances Greenly (d. 1763), the half-sister of William Greenly, married Herbert Bradford (1701–1768), a Herefordshire clergyman, Curate of Shobdon 1728–1768, Rector of Cefyn-Lys 1748–1768 and Vicar of Aymestry 1762–1768. Bradford was the maternal uncle of Southey’s mother. Elizabeth Tyler, Southey’s aunt, lived with Bradford for much of her youth.[back]
18. A meeting in support of Charles James Fox (1749–1806; DNB) and his Whig group, who opposed the war with France, declared in 1793.[back]
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