4278. Robert Southey to Caroline Bowles, [13 November 1824]

 

Address: [in another hand] London Eighteenth Nov. 1824/ Miss Bowles/ Buckland/ Lymington/ Hants/ Fm/ JRickman
Postmark: FREE/ 18 NO 18/ 1824
MS: British Library, Add MS 47889. ALS; 2p. 
Previously published: Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 70–72 [in part].
Note on MS: fol. 1 is absent from the manuscript in the British Library and has not been traced elsewhere. However, Dowden had access to the now-missing fol. 1; his edition is therefore used to supply the copytext for this section of the letter.

KESWICK, November 13th, 1824.

If procrastination is the thief of time, letter-writing is quite as great a one, and I find the two thieves very closely connected. Some unexpected epistle arrives which is neither wanted nor welcome, but which must be answered; or some other demand upon my hours is made, for which I am neither prepared nor willing, and then the intention which had been formed, of writing that evening to you, stands over for the morrow; and when the morrow comes, other interruptions of the same kind occur, and prevent me from passing an hour according to my wishes.

In reply to your letter, thank Mr. St. Barbe

(1)

Charles St Barbe (1750–1826), a banker and salt manufacturer of Lymington, Hampshire; or his son, Charles St Barbe (1776–1849), a banker and antiquary.

in what manner seems best to you, for Pope’s letter,

(2)

A letter from Alexander Pope (1688–1744; DNB), poet.

which I shall be very glad to have. Take for your own collection – as the first which has turned up – a note of Charles Lamb’s, relating to a review of Wordsworth’s Excursion written by him at my request for the Quarterly, and inserted there, but so mangled by Gifford as to be absolutely spoiled.

(3)

Charles Lamb’s review of Wordsworth’s The Excursion; a Poem (1814), Quarterly Review, 12 (October 1814), 100–111, published 6 January 1815. The note from Lamb might be that of 20 October 1814, published in Edwin W. Marrs Jnr (ed.), The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 3 vols (Ithaca, 1975–1978), III, p. 115.

It will go very well in the frank, and I will send you others as I meet with them.

Cuthbert is now in the very honeymoon of his happiness, having just been breeched; breeching, as I tell Sara, being to a boy what marrying is to a young lady, the great thing in life which is looked on to, and I ask her seriously which she thinks the greatest happiness. I wish you could see Cuthbert; during dinner he lifts up his pin-before to look at the buttons. It is pleasant to see him, and yet the change is not one which brings with it any cheerful thoughts, for it takes away the charm of childhood, and

(4)

‘KESWICK … childhood, and’: text supplied by Dowden. The remainder of the letter text is taken from the surviving manuscript.

what charm is there in this world equal to it!

Edith has been just a week in London. Her plans for getting there were sadly deranged, for Lady Malet

(5)

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

was summoned to Winchester by an account that her son

(6)

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.

there was dangerously ill after the measles. The child, I rejoice to say has recovered. Bertha is still at Portsmouth where Rickman is fitting up a house that he has built. I shall have them both home in February; – by which time we shall have lost our last neighbours, – for Mary Calvert being married & settled in London,

(7)

Mary Calvert (1804–1890), the daughter of William Calvert. She married Joshua Stanger (1801–1854), son of James Stanger, in 1824.

her father & mother

(8)

Mary Calvert (c. 1775–1834), née Mitchinson, the wife of William Calvert.

are about to remove thither. So be it, – we are enough within doors, & have enough employment there I had rather, for my own part, be without neighbours – such as neighbours usually are, than with them; – but it would add greatly to my enjoyment if I had you within reach.

Landor has sent over another volume of Conversations to the press.

(9)

Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824), published in two volumes. A third volume appeared in 1828.

Differing as I do from him in xxx constitutional temper, & in some serious opinions, he is yet of all men living the one with whom I feel the most entire & cordial sympathy in heart & mind. Were I a single man I think the pleasure of a weeks abode with him cheaply purchased by a journey to Florence, tho pilgrim-like – the whole way to be performed on foot. – The title of his book reminds me of Lord Byrons Conversations as xxx let off by his Blunderbuss Capt Medwin.

(10)

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 used this precedent to describe Thomas Medwin (1…

I have only seen some newspaper extracts.

(11)

New Times, 25–27 October 1824, where Stoddart 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). The Morning Herald had published extracts of Medwin’s book, for example on 25 October 1824.

– I fastened his name upon the gibbet, (as I told him,)

(12)

Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776, published 11 January 1822.

– his friends have now exposed him there in chains. I am told there is no mention of my correspondence with Shelley.

(13)

In a letter of 26 June 1820, Shelley had accused Southey of writing a hostile review of Laon and Cythna, or the Revolution of the Golden City (1818; published late 1817) and The Revolt of Islam. A Poem, in Twelve Cantos (1818); see Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 358–359. Southey responded with his letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley, [c. 29 July 1820], The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3517. Shelley replied in a letter to Southey, 17 August 1820, Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert S…

Shelley probably kept it to himself. Miserable men that they were, both so gifted – & so guilty!

Since my last I have not composed any verses except a few stanzas of the Paraguay

(14)

Southey’s A Tale of Paraguay (1825).

– which is the plague of my life. But I have been getting on well with the History, & the Dialogues.

(15)

Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) and Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829).

God bless you my dear friend.

yr faithfully 
RS.

Notes

1. Charles St Barbe (1750–1826), a banker and salt manufacturer of Lymington, Hampshire; or his son, Charles St Barbe (1776–1849), a banker and antiquary.[back]
2. A letter from Alexander Pope (1688–1744; DNB), poet.[back]
3. Charles Lamb’s review of Wordsworth’s The Excursion; a Poem (1814), Quarterly Review, 12 (October 1814), 100–111, published 6 January 1815. The note from Lamb might be that of 20 October 1814, published in Edwin W. Marrs Jnr (ed.), The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 3 vols (Ithaca, 1975–1978), III, p. 115.[back]
4. ‘KESWICK … childhood, and’: text supplied by Dowden. The remainder of the letter text is taken from the surviving manuscript.[back]
5. Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), the widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB).[back]
6. 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]
7. Mary Calvert (1804–1890), the daughter of William Calvert. She married Joshua Stanger (1801–1854), son of James Stanger, in 1824.[back]
8. Mary Calvert (c. 1775–1834), née Mitchinson, the wife of William Calvert.[back]
9. Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824), published in two volumes. A third volume appeared in 1828.[back]
10. 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 used this precedent to describe Thomas Medwin (1788–1869; DNB), author of Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron: Noted During a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the Years 1821 and 1822 (1824), as Byron’s ‘Blunderbuss’.[back]
11. New Times, 25–27 October 1824, where Stoddart 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). The Morning Herald had published extracts of Medwin’s book, for example on 25 October 1824.[back]
12. Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776, published 11 January 1822.[back]
13. In a letter of 26 June 1820, Shelley had accused Southey of writing a hostile review of Laon and Cythna, or the Revolution of the Golden City (1818; published late 1817) and The Revolt of Islam. A Poem, in Twelve Cantos (1818); see Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 358–359. Southey responded with his letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley, [c. 29 July 1820], The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3517. Shelley replied in a letter to Southey, 17 August 1820, Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 361–363. Southey to Percy Bysshe Shelley, 12 October 1820, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3538 closed the correspondence.[back]
14. Southey’s A Tale of Paraguay (1825).[back]
15. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) and Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829).[back]
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