3992. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, Good Friday [28 March] 1823

Address: To/ D^r Southey/ 15 Queen Anne Street/ Cavendish Square/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 31 MR 31/ 1823
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Don. d. 4. ALS; 3p.
Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), II, p. 243–245.

Keswick. Good Friday. 1823

My dear H.

At length I can write to you respecting Tom. Two lions, of the great family of lions in his way,

⁽¹⁾

are removed, he has got rid of his farm,

⁽²⁾

& of his debt to the Fenwicks,

⁽³⁾

– the latter at a very easy rate, by their cancelling his note of hand,

⁽⁴⁾

– the former by a temporary arrangement sufficiently convenient & indeed advantageous at present, but which may bring the lion back hereafter. His intention is to go himself to Canada as soon as possible, do what he can there, return in the autumn & remove his family thither in the spring of next year. Robert

⁽⁵⁾

goes with him, as old enough to be useful, & likely to be better with his father than anywhere else: & I think there is also an eye to the likelihood that this Matthew Bell

⁽⁶⁾

(a great man at Quebec) who is distantly related to Sarah, & intimate with the Taylors,

⁽⁷⁾

may prove a friend to him. His stock is to be sold next week, & he is going to look at a Maryport vessel which is to sail for Quebec on the 10^th of April

⁽⁸⁾

– I have given him 30 £ for the present; – & when I am in London will lodge what I can in his agents

⁽⁹⁾

hands to answer his bills. Will you now get what introductions M^r Robinson

⁽¹⁰⁾

& Wilmot

⁽¹¹⁾

can give; & leave to chuse his grant either in Upper or Lower Canada,

⁽¹²⁾

as he may find reason to prefer when he is on the spot. This can there can be no difficulty in I should suppose; – & if the license may extend to a power of choice in either, so much the better tho R’s advice of taking all that can be got, is good worldly wisdom.

His first intention was to go bag & baggage at once. Tho I see reason enough to wish that this were advisable, it certainly is not to be advised: & therefore I declared against it from the beginning, & George Taylor induced him to change his purpose, & go to prepare the way.

One of my books

⁽¹³⁾

represents the right bank of the S^t Laurence, opposite Quebec, as having many advantages; & this makes him hesitate between the two provinces. It appears to me that every good situation near the capital

⁽¹⁴⁾

must long have been occupied: should it prove otherwise, it would certainly desirable to save 1000 miles of travelling & at the expence of sxx a colder climate, settle nearer Quebec, & in a sitx part which would be safe during war.

⁽¹⁵⁾

The whole affair hangs upon me like a mill-stone. I am quite certain that no other course is left for them, & this they feel. – But there is a feeling on his part that he had a right to look for promotion & Heaven knows what on the score of my merits; – & to my surprize G. Taylor has been injudicious enough to encourage this. He is dissatisfied with me for not urging this claim, – forgetful of what has been done, – & shutting his eyes upon the staring fact that if my xxxxxx xxx influence were what he chuses to suppose it, it would not leave me dependent as I am for two thirds of my income, upon xx constant exertion at my desk.

You had better let his credentials be directed immediately to himself.

I am anxious to hear how you are going on. Is there any truth in the account of this strange – & unaccountable mortality in London?

⁽¹⁶⁾

– If I were in better spirits I would ask if xxx you have practising very extensively this season. – You will be glad to here that I have kept up my condition during the winter, – & except for a rough day, have felt no symptom of my old complaint

⁽¹⁷⁾

–

God bless you. – Love to all
RS.

Notes

1. Proverbs, 26: 13: ‘The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets.’[back]

2. Emerald Bank in the Newlands valley, about four miles from Keswick.[back]

3. Tom Southey had possibly written to Dr John Ralph Fenwick (c. 1762–1855) and his wife Dorothy, née Spearman (dates unknown). Fenwick lived in Durham when Tom Southey farmed in the county and was well known to Henry Herbert Southey. He was a wealthy local radical.[back]

4. Tom Southey’s written guarantee to repay the money that he owed.[back]

5. Robert Castle Southey (1813–1828), Tom Southey’s eldest son.[back]

6. Matthew Bell (1769–1849), a wealthy merchant, iron manufacturer and land speculator, originally from Berwick-upon-Tweed.[back]

7. Probably George Taylor and his son, Henry Taylor.[back]

8. Tom Southey sailed from Whitehaven on 20 April 1823 on the brig Maria and reached Quebec on 27 May.[back]

9. John Hinxman (1759–1844), a navy agent, whose business was based at 72 Great Russell Street. Southey did not leave for London until 3 November 1823 and so asked John May to lodge £100 with Hinxman; see Southey to John May, 3 June 1823, Letter 4026.[back]

10. Sir John Beverley Robinson, 1st Baronet (1791–1863), Solicitor-General for Upper Canada 1815–1818, Attorney-General for Upper Canada 1818–1829, Chief Justice of Upper Canada 1829–1841 and of Canada West 1841–1862. At this time, Robinson was in London seeking to promote legislation to put Upper Canada’s finances on a sounder footing, resulting in the Canada Trade Act (1822).[back]

11. Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton (1784–1841; DNB), Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1821–1828.[back]

12. This division was established in 1791; Upper Canada was in modern Ontario and Lower Canada in modern Quebec.[back]

13. Unidentified.[back]

14. Quebec City.[back]

15. Any future war between the United Kingdom and the United States; the last conflict was in 1812–1814.[back]

16. ‘The extraordinary changes of climate to which we have been exposed during the Winter and Spring, (hitherto) have we learn, produced an appalling increase in mortality. It is stated, and we believe on good authority, that the deaths in London, within the last four months, exceed the average of two-thirds of the year at any former common period; apoplexy particularly prevails’ (Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 27 March 1823).[back]

17. Southey suffered from a rectal prolapse and haemorrhoids.[back]

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3992. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, Good Friday [28 March] 1823

3992. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, Good Friday [28 March] 1823

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer