3974. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 3 March 1823

MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4813D. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.

My dear Wynn

I am very much obliged to you for your aid at the Colonial Office.

The next business is to learn what steps are to be taken, – understanding, as I do, that the promised facilities imply a grant of lands. Would not the best & easiest method of proceeding be for my brother D^r S.to call upon M^r Wilmot?

⁽²⁾

If you approve of this, have the goodness to say to M^r Wilmot that he will do so, & give him a line (at 15 Q. Anne Street) to let him know that you have so done. Or advise me, if any other mode be better.

I did not know that my brother Tom had written to Lord Bathurst,

⁽³⁾

till your inclosure informed me of it.

Burnets is a book which I should very much like to take for the subject of a paper.

⁽⁴⁾

– You will not however be surprized that the more I look into English history, – the more I feel the want of an adequate historical library, – & the consequent chasms in my knowledge of its different periods. – At this time I grievously feel the want of a Corpus Hist.

⁽⁵⁾

God bless you
RS.

Keswick. 3 March. 1823.

Notes

1. Tom Southey was investigating whether he might emigrate to Canada.[back]

2. Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton (1784–1841; DNB), Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1821–1828 and an indefatigable promoter of emigration schemes. He was later Governor of Ceylon 1831–1837.[back]

3. Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst (1762–1834; DNB), Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1812–1827.[back]

4. Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715; DNB), History of his own Time: from the Restoration of King Charles II, to the Conclusion of the Treaty of Peace at Utrecht, in the Reign of Queen Anne (1724–1734). A new edition by Martin Routh (1755–1854; DNB) appeared in 1823, and was reviewed by Southey in Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 165–213, published 27–28 September 1823. The book was no. 498 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]

5. A ‘corpus historicus’, or body of history, i.e. a state-sponsored series of publications of British historical documents.[back]

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3974. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 3 March 1823

3974. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 3 March 1823

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer