3494. Robert Southey to Wade Browne [fragment], 19 June 1820
3494. Robert Southey to Wade Browne [fragment], 19 June 1820*
Streatham. 19 June. 1820
My dear Sir
I send you two letters for my friend Wade, [1] – one to the Minister at Constantinople – the other to the Secretary of Legation. They are both from my Uncle, & I believe it would not be possible to obtain a better introduction than his name will carry with it both to Ld Strangford [2] & to Bartholomew Frere. But it is better to have too many than too few, & before I leave town it will be in my power to send you a second packet.
You will have seen that I have been L.L.D’d at Oxford, [3] an honour which adds these letters to my title-pages, but nothing to my name, there being already one Doctor in the family. My reception at Oxford was in the highes[MS missing] degree flattering – so much so as to have made me wish at the time that those who are near & dear to me had been present to have witnessed it [MS missing] How the children would have been astonished to see me in a crimson gown with rose-coloured-silk sleeves & a beef-eaters hat!
I shall set out on my return on Wednesday the 28th. Oh how heartily glad I shall be to feel myself once more at home & at rest! I may truly <say> that the quietest time which I have past since I left your hospitable roof, has been when I was actually upon the road. – Out to breakfast, out to dinner, day after day has been the course of my life, & all day long upon the pavement or the road. You may well suppose that I am miserably tired.
Remember me most kindly to Mrs Browne & your daughters [4] [remainder of MS missing]
Notes
[1] Wade Browne (1796–1851), only son of Wade Browne and later a country gentleman at Monkton Farleigh in Somerset. He had graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1819 and was travelling in Europe and the Near East. BACK
[2] Percy Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford (1780–1855; DNB), Ambassador to Portugal 1808–1814, Sweden 1817–1820 and the Ottoman Empire 1820–1824. BACK