234. Robert Southey to Thomas Southey [brother], 16 July [1797] ⁠* 

Sunday. July 16^th. Burton

My dear Tom

I have a very pleasant piece of intelligence to begin. Boutet [1]  goes by the first cartel — I had moved many enquiries to get him out, & luckily the first succeeded. the same post brought your letter this morning & his in which he thanks me, sends a thousand friendships to you & says his future address in Nantes. God bless him wherever he goes. A friend of Cottles by name Birt or Burt or Bird, [2]  has been the means of serving him & the Commissary communicated it to Boutet himself. he was likewise offered money — so you see every thing has been done, & you will rejoice with me that it has been effectual.

I mean strongly to urge my Mother to let her house for whatever she can, even half price, for it is better to sink 50 than 100 a year; & come live with us. this would make her very happy & us too, & I have enough to live comfortably upon. my Uncle wrote to me a few days back & said he would from time to time do what he could to serve me; thank God I want not his assistance. my literary labours find me what books & luxuries I allow myself (& books make the only ones perhaps). I have the necessary comforts of life besides. would to God you could come to us — do not let an opportunity pass you. thank God I have always a home for you.

Your communications I very much thank you for; they suit the purpose better than I expected, & you shall see them in print. [3]  I earned from the Monthly Magazine last year seven pounds & two pair of breeches in eight months which as I give them only a few leisure mornings in a month & what would not be printed in any collection of my own is not amiss. it is an excellent Magazine. I will mark your copy with the authors names wherever I know them, & this will render it more interesting to you.

Cottle & his brother have been visiting me; they remained only a few days, but they were very happy days, & we shall neither of us soon forget them. to escape from a shop counter is very delightful, indeed change of scene is always agreable, if we do not find yourselves when in a new place wholly among new faces. I am now domesticated here, & have even more acquaintance than suits with my oeconomy of time.

Perhaps you may wish to know what I have on the stocks. Madoc slowly goes on, but altogether to my own satisfaction which is saying much. a second edition of the little volume of poems is in the Press. I am getting ready a tragedy to be called The Martyrdom of Joan of Arc [4]  to go to press when they are finished, & a new edition of the poem [5]  in two pocket volumes much altered, succeeds that — so that my printer Biggs is almost monopolized. all these you will of course receive as soon as they are finished.

Your imprisonment has alarmed all the circle of my acquaintance, & the subsequent history highly interested them. my acquaintance are wonderfully increased. — so much is a man esteemed according to the worlds opinion of him! people call upon me, & if I do not like them I never return the visit; & I have had the satisfaction of refusing some dinner invitations from persons who had never seen me, because I hate impertinent curiosity. what is somewhat strange I never had any friends at Bristol till I was left to myself there.

This is a pleasant place, I have half a cottage here & a maid for the time we stay, we have a spare bed which I do not love to have empty, & my neighbour Mr Biddlecombe, a very agreable man, can always lend me another. here is fine fishing — fine swimming — pleasant walks & excellent prospects. we have but one nuisance — the notorious old Lady Strathmore [6]  of news-paper & Doctors Commons reputation — who persecutes us with invitations. now it is neither agreable or creditable to visit such a wicked old woman, I cannot tell her this, & she will not be satisfied with refusals.

My Uncles addition as Chaplain to the Staff is 10 shilling a day besides perquisites. he has sent me drawings of the views we saw on our journey. I wish you were here to see them. it is my intention to have some engraved for the next edition of my Letters, [7]  which have I believe sold very well. unluckily now my name is established I must have done with it, for to publish whilst studying law would materially injure me. so I assume the name of Walter Tyler, [8]  in honour of my good old Uncle, an ancestor of whom I am very proud & with reason.

Ediths love. she wishes much to see you. the post will pass us in a minute. God bless you.

yrs affectionately

Robert Southey