2763. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 20 April 1816

2763. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 20 April 1816⁠* 

Saturday 20 April.

My dear Grosvenor

Desire Gifford to reserve room for me in this number, – I will <not> delay it beyond the first week in May he may rely upon this, – I am diligently at work, – the exertion is wholesome for me at this season, & I want the money. – It is the La Vendee Article. [1] 

A proof [2]  has reached me, – so your trouble on that score may be spared.

I am in all respects acting as you would wish to see me; – not unmindful of the blessings which are left & the duties which I have to perform. – But indeed Grosvenor it is only a deep – heartfelt & ever present faith which could support me. If what I have lost were lost for ever, I should sink under the affliction. Throughout the whole sorrow, long & trying as it has been, Edith has demeaned herself in a with a strength of mind, & of self-controul which deserving the highest admiration. To be as happy <ever again> as I have been is impossible, – my future happiness must be of a different kind, but the difference will be in kind rather <than> in degree, – there will be less of this world in it, – more of this the next, – therefore will it be safe & durable.

God bless you

RS.

Notes

* Address: To/ G. C. Bedford Esqre/ Exchequer/ Westminster
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 23 AP 23/ 1816
Endorsement: 20 April 1816/ Recd. 23d
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 25. ALS; 2p.
Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 165–166. BACK

[1] Southey reviewed in Quarterly Review, 15 (April 1816), 1–69, a series of memoirs of the French Revolutionary wars, including the royalist uprising in La Vendée, 1793–1796. BACK

[2] The final proofs of The Poet’s Pilgrimage of Waterloo (1816), which Southey, stricken by grief over the death of his son Herbert, had asked Bedford to correct; see Southey to Bedford, 18–[19] April 1816, Letter 2761. BACK

Addressee

Bedford, Grosvenor Charles (1773–1839)

People mentioned

Gifford, William (1756–1826) (mentioned 1 time)
Southey, Herbert (1806–1816) (mentioned 1 time)
Fricker, Edith (1774–1837) (mentioned 1 time)
The Collected Letters of Robert Southey, Part Five
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