331. Robert Southey to John May, 8 July 1798 ⁠* 

Sunday. July 8^th. 1798

My dear friend

I have been for some time in expectation of hearing from you, but you probably have been waiting for a new direction, & many employments have kept me silent. It was not till the Thursday evening preceding quarter day that a house was found at all suitable for us, & you can hardly conceive in what perpetual occupation I have been since we took possession. pulling down & putting up; - upholsterer – carpenter – mason – painter – paperer in succession, till of a filthy old barn looking house we have made a clean & comfortable dwelling. It is at Westbury, a village two miles from Bristol, in the pleasantest part of this country. there is a tolerable garden behind the house, in which excepting some half dozen rose bushes, every thing is calculated for use. the view over the garden is very beautiful, a fertile & woody vale, bounded on each side by hills, & terminated by a range of hills ten miles distant. the most interesting parts of the country are near at hand, & ten minutes walk would convey me to one of the most beautiful glens I ever saw.

here I begin to feel myself at home, & am already enough acquainted with the house to go about in the dark; this is the criterion I think of intimacy with a dwelling place. to day my books are to arrive; two windows that have been blocked up on account of the tax, [1]  form two convenient recesses for them, I have knockd up some shelves there, & when my box arrives from Cottles I shall need no other society. The Chinese have a good proverb “To read an excellent book the first time is to gain a new friend: to read over one we have perused before, is like meeting with an old friend.” [2] 

Do you remember my picking up <a> Portugueze sermon the day we went to Wapping?  [3]  I have found matter for a curious note in it, chiefly from the Spanish reply to the Sermon. the Spanish Jew has replied with learning & moderation, & I strongly suspect that the most remarkable passage in that mischievous work the Systême de la Nature [4]  was suggested by this book: I allude to the supposed defence of an Atheist who finds his mistake in another world. I have never read the Systeme de la Nature & speak of it at secondhand.

You are I believe in the habit of borrowing books from Cadell & Davies [5]  – I can recommend you to read A Series of Plays [6]  attempting to trace the effects of the stronger passions, lately published by them. three plays only are yet published but they are so excellent, that I could prophesy the Author, if he proceeds, will do honour to English literature.

I have bespoke your books of Cottle. they will cost 5^s each – apply the purchase money for me in your next little subscription. – & let me have your plan for examining the poor as soon as it is arranged. I will exert myself in promoting it here. I am inclined to send you some lines which I wrote lately called The Complaints of the Poor. [7]  you may perhaps like them.

–––––

Coleridge I hear is going to Germany: a wilder or more ridiculous scheme was never undertaken than this – to go with a wife & two infants merely to learn a language which may be learnt by his own fireside! [9]  – Cottle has entered into partnership with my printer, I am glad of it on many accounts; you should know Cottle, for there does not live a man of simpler & purer heart, or of more real benevolence. I am now going to Bristol to superintend the wagg shipping my goods – or rather waggoning them, as they come by a returning-waggon here. direct to Cottles. & let me soon hear of you. <My Mother & Edith are both greatly recovered. Edith desires to be remembered.>

God bless you –

yrs affectionately

Robert Southey.