2699. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 14 January 1816⁠* 

Keswick. 14 Jan^y. 1816

My dear Harry

Of me you will have heard from time to time thro the Light Horse Man, & thro him I have heard occasionally of you, – but there are other things of which I should be glad to hear, – how is Louisa going on? How is M^rs Gonne? & how is that wound of my Uncles? the vis medicatrix [1]  is languid at his time of life, & it xxxx I do not think of this without some degree of uneasiness.

Here we are going on well. Your niece has recovered her health & spirits, & xxxxxxx <amusing> Calvert by her discourse account of foreign parts. I am at present making enquiry with much solicitude & little hope for a house for Tom, who will be ejected in March in consequence of George Taylors [2]  marriage. Tom as the proverb says has “brought an old house on his head” by his own marriage, [3]  but George Taylors xxxxxx very much increases the inconvenience by taking an old house off his hands. Where he will find a place I know not. I have heard of several, & upon farther inquiry, they have all proved ineligible.

My poem approaches its close, & will fall little short of 1500 lines. The title is A Poets Pilgrimage to the Field of Belle Alliance. [4]  I transfer to it as much of the proem to the intended marriage verses as is transferable, [5]  & conclude with a L’Envoy in the same strain. There is much variety in the poem, & it is not like any thing else. If any person asks why I call it the field of B Alliance, it may be replied as a sufficient reason that I wished not to give it the same title as Walter Scott had done, – being especially desirous of avoiding any thing which might seem to invite a comparison between two poems, which are in structure & manner essentially & totally different. [6]  I wish you to introduce yourself to my fellow traveller Mr Nash, & see the sketches which he made, – Bedford having more leisure than you, will arrange about the engravings with Longman, [7]  – but if his outer xxxxxx view of Hougoumont be not from so good a point as Charles Bells, [8]  or not likely to make so good a print, you can procure the letter, in which that was offered for the purpose. Nash lives next door to W^m Burn. [9] Xx xxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx – we found him a very pleasant companion. I wrote to him at Paris about the drawings. The sooner now that they are in the engravers hands the better.

I have marked in the course of my reading since my return every thing that can relate to your lectures, & will send you them very shortly.

This day fortnight some of my foreign purchases were to sail from London for Newcastle, on board one of Mr Vardons ships. I hope the Acta Sanctorum are among them, but am not certain. In the course of another week they ought to reach me. [10] 

You will have heard of Kosters affairs – Henry K says they are in full hopes that things will be settled amicably, – but it is clearly a severe calamity. The female part of the family leave Liverpool, & have taken Dares [11]  house here, – I do not know if you recollect it, it is opposite Calverts, on the edge of the common between the Penrith & Ambleside road, the situation good but the house very small. Harriet K & three of her sisters [12]  are already arrived there, M^rs K with the other girls & the poor boy [13]  are delayed a little while by his arm, & the xxx state of one of the girls health. I suppose Koster will go on again ere long, – but the prospect is a dreary one, with so xxxx many daughters, xx he is a man of 65, & Henry the only son (for Johns life is I believe not to be desired) not likely, I fear, to bear the English climate.

Our love to Louisa. Let me hear from you ere long–

God bless you

RS.