2434. Robert Southey to Henry Colburn [fragment], 5 June 1814
2434. Robert Southey to Henry Colburn [fragment], 5 June 1814 *
Keswick. June 5. 1814.
Sir
I have this afternoon received your letter. A bust for which I sate in October last [1] is in the possession of my brother Dr Southey, 28. Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, & this is at your service for the proposed purpose. [2] With regard to biographical particulars it is sufficient to state that I was born at Bristol 1774, was of Westminster School, & of Balliol College, Oxford; & that the occasion which led my directed my studies particularly to the literature & history of Portugal & Spain was that my maternal Uncle was for very many years Chaplain to the British Factory at Lisbon. [3]
I am Sir
Yr humble servant
Robert Southey.
Notes
* Address: To/ Mr Colburn/ Bookseller/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/
298
Postmark: E/ 8 JU 8/ 1814
Seal: red wax; raised arm with cross of Lorraine
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Montagu d.
10. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[3] Southey explained the circumstances surrounding this letter to Anne Grant, 24 July 1824. Colburn had asked to borrow a portrait of Southey, in order to produce an engraving for the New Monthly Magazine. Not entirely satisfied with Southey’s response, he borrowed the bust and ‘got someone to attempt the impossible task of making a portrait from it, which he engraved as an original picture: – a miserable looking wretch it is – something in physiognomy between assassin & hangman’. The offending engraving, accompanied by a ‘long Memoir’, appeared in the New Monthly Magazine, 1 (January-July 1814), Frontispiece; 566–571. BACK
