684. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 24 June 1802

684. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 24 June 1802 *
Dear Cottle
I have called on Pine – he was very civil & willingly parted with the plate which I will send up with the drawing. [1] the drawing [2] would have been sent sooner, but it was necessary to make quite a new one Rickman not bearing the examination of an artist on the spot. I would have got the plate of the large facsimile [3] from Pine if he had had it – but that plate was never sent from London, & he knows no clue whereby it could be found.
Will you tell George Dyer that I thank him for his books – that I received his yesterdays letter also & will soon write to him. We shall be obliged to Haslewood for his list of books & remarks upon them [4] – I saw him & know what kind of man he is. he has hunted the subject more than any one else. would it not be well if he would furnish them to print all the pieces from the Magazine that are signed Asaphides [5] – as some with that signature are in the Miscellanies? [6] Mr Britton [7] promised to get some poems for us – I fancy they are the same which Mr Hill communicated. this you can learn thro Rees.
Dyer talked of sending Haslewoods list to me. that would be quite useless –
God bless you –
yrs truly
R Southey
June 24. 1802. Kingsdown.
Mr Britton Wilderness Row Near Chester House Gardens [8]
Notes
* Address: To/ Mr Cottle/ Crane Court – Fleet
Street./London
Stamped: BRISTOL
Postmark: B/ JUN25/ 1802
Endorsement: June 1802/ Mr
Prifens/ 159
59/ (autograph of Robert Southey)/ J. C.
MS: Beinecke Library, GEN MSS 298, Series I, Box 1, folder
9. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] A plate of an illustration intended for Southey and Cottle’s The Works of Thomas Chatterton (1803) that Southey had borrowed from either William Pine (d. 1803), leading Bristol Methodist and printer of the Bristol Gazette, or his son, William Pine (1769-1837). The identity of the plate is not clear, but it could be connected to the image of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, reproduced in William Barrett (c. 1727-1789; DNB), The History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol (Bristol, 1789), between pp. 574-575. William Pine (probably the father) had printed Barrett’s History. BACK
[2] Probably the sketch of the exterior of the tower and north porch of St Mary Redcliffe, reproduced in Southey and Cottle’s The Works of Thomas Chatterton, 3 vols (London, 1803), I, frontispiece. Southey had originally asked Rickman to produce this; see Southey to John King, 16 March 1802, Letter 663. BACK
[3] Probably the large facsimile of ‘Bristol Castle 1138’ ‘T. Rowleie delin. 1440’, published in Southey and Cottle’s The Works of Thomas Chatterton, 3 vols (London, 1803), III, between pp. 496-497. This had previously been published in William Barrett (c. 1727-1789; DNB), The History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol (Bristol, 1789), between pp. 196-197. BACK
[5] A pseudonym used by Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770; DNB) when publishing in the Town and Country Magazine; see Southey and Cottle, The Works of Thomas Chatterton, 3 vols (London, 1803), III, p. 251 and n. *. BACK
[7] The antiquarian and topographer John Britton (1771-1857; DNB). As Britton was not thanked for his help in The Works of Thomas Chatterton, 3 vols (London, 1803), I, ‘Preface’, unpaginated, while Thomas Hill was, Southey was probably correct in thinking that Britton had no new information to add to the edition. BACK