140. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle [possibly a fragment], [17 November 1795]
140. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle [possibly a fragment], [17 November 1795] *
Nov. 16. 1795 (Cottle’s date)
Tuesday midday. RS’ duty
Edith will be happy with your sisters & they will love her in proportion as they become intimate with her character. I did not wish her farewell — I prest her hand — & we parted without a word.
God bless you. we are in the hurry of preparations we go on Thursday if possible. I am eager to quit the Country — for once set forward it will seem that I am journeying home towards home
sincerely
Robert Southey
Notes
* MS: MS untraced; the text is taken from a MS transcript in the hand of James Dykes
Campbell, in the Coleridge Collection, Victoria University Library, Toronto, MS LT99. TR; 1p. An annotation, ‘Cozens’, in Campbell’s hand
suggests the transcript was made from manuscripts in the collection of Frederick William Cosens (1819–89). Campbell’s 1894 life of
Coleridge quoted from letters by the latter in Cosens’ possession. Letters sent from Cosens to Campbell in 1887 and 1888 (and
forwarded by Campbell to E. H. Coleridge on 18 July 1888) indicate he was using Cosens’ collection of letters by Coleridge, and it
is reasonable to assume he also read the Southey letters sometime around this period.
Unpublished.
Dating note: James Dykes
Campbell’s transcript is misdated 16 November 1795. The same transcript is headed ‘Tuesday’ (which was 17 November) and the letter
bears marked similarities of subject and phrasing to one sent by Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford on 17 November 1795 (Letter
139). It is possible that this and the fragment to Cottle, dated ‘Falmouth, 1795’ (Letter 143), are part of the same letter.
Campbell’s note on Southey’s ‘duty’ might imply so. BACK
