4002. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 19 April 1823

Endorsement: 19 April 1823
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 26. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.

My dear G.

In the course of the ensuing fortnight John May will deposit in your hands 111 £ for my use: – the use thereof being known only to yourself.

⁽¹⁾

– I must request you to <transmit it to> Westall, whose address is 19 Mornington Place, Hampstead Road. He tells me that four of the plates for Roderick are finished, & the other two very nearly so.

⁽²⁾

I have not yet seen them, but he is about to send me the proofs, & he is as well satisfied with the engraving as with the designs. – If they succeed I shall be for trying the same adventure with Thalaba

⁽³⁾

God bless you
RS.

19 April. 1823.

If you should see Westall, pay him a few shillings more (three I believe) for a set of the Peninsular Views

⁽⁴⁾

which I send to New England. – Three shillings I think, with the balance upon the larger sum will make up their price.

⁽⁵⁾

Notes

1. Another hand adds ‘+’, followed by a note next to the closing signature: ‘pd. to M^r Westall 12 May/ 1823/ 8816 – 100. 9 Ap^r 1823/ 17.436.10.29 Mar: 1823’. [Editors’ note: this relates to the payment to Westall.][back]

2. Southey was secretly investing in Richard Westall (1765–1836; DNB), Roderick, the Last of the Goths, by R. Southey. Illustrated with Engravings from the Designs of R. W. (1824), nos 2627–2628 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. These engravings were published by Longman and were made to be removable so that they could be inserted in the appropriate places in Southey’s Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814).[back]

3. Southey’s Thalaba the Destroyer (1801). Richard Westall did not produce a set of engravings for this poem.[back]

4. A Series of Views of Spain and Portugal, to Illustrate Mr. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War; Drawn on Stone by W. Westall, A.R.A., from Sketches by General Hawker, Mr. Locker, Mr. Heaphy, &c. Part I, containing Eight Views, illustrating Vol. I (1823). These Views could be removed from the publication so that they could be inserted in the appropriate places in the first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). Southey was sending a copy to George Ticknor.[back]

5. Insertion in another hand follows: ‘12. May 1823./ I acknowledge to have received of M^r Southey by the hands of M^r Bedford one hundred & ten pounds 5/ – part of the before mentioned £111- W. Westall.’[back]

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4002. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 19 April 1823

4002. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 19 April 1823

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer