4029. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, 9 June [1823]

Address: To/ The Reverend Herbert Hill/ Streatham/ Surrey
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmarks: +/ 12 JU 12/ x823; 10 F.NOON 10/ JU.12/ 1823
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, WC 233. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.

I can only give you the title of the Spanish History from the French translation of it, – Histoire de la Guerre d’Espagne contre Napoleon Buonaparte, par une Commission d’Officiers de toutes armes, etablie a Madrid, aupres de S. Ex. Le Ministre de la Guerre.

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The works which I want are “the War in Catalonia, 4 Vol. Seville. 1815. Anecdotes of Chiefs employed in the Catalonian War, 1816. – & Memoirs of the Sp. Monarchy from the reign of Ferdinand & Isabella, to the usurpation of Joseph Buonaparte, 6 vol. All by Francisco de Olivarez.

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I am glad to hear of Harry’s prospects.

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A feather in the cap, leads to something in his profession. – Remember me to Fred. Blackstone,

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it is well to hear of his recovery as soon as of his illness. Tell him, if he does not already know it, that Landors Dialogues

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are at last in the press, under Julius Hare’s direction. – I having, at his desire & the publishers,

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taken upon myself the responsibility of passing, or expurgating such passages as the publisher (a sensible & conscientious man) objects to.

A Bostonian

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is coming to me this evening. I shall soon have as many <more> acquaintance in that city than in any English one, London alone excepted.

God bless you
RS.

Monday 9. June.

Notes

1. Histoire de la Guerre d’Espagne contre Napoléon Buonaparte. Par une Commission d’Officiers de Toutes Armes Etablie a Madrid, Auprès de S. Ex. le Ministre de la Guerre; Traduite de l’Espagnol, Avec Notes et Eclaircissemens (1818).[back]

2. Southey had read John Mitford’s ‘On Spanish Literature, with some Account of Francisco de Olivarez’, New Monthly Magazine, 10 (October 1818), 221–223. It mentioned Olivarez’s Account of the War in Catalonia (1815) in four volumes, published at Seville, 1815; Anecdotes of Chiefs Employed in the Catalan War (1816); and Memoirs of the Spanish Monarchy to the Abdication of Charles 4 & the Usurpation of Joseph Bonaparte (1816). However, none of these works seem to exist.[back]

3. Henry Herbert Southey had been elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians on 25 June 1823; the London Gazette, 1 July 1823, announced he had been appointed a Physician in Ordinary to George IV.[back]

4. Frederick Charles Blackstone (1795–1862), a clergyman and a relation by marriage of Hill. Blackstone’s mother was Margaret Bigg-Wither (1768–1842), a sister of Hill’s wife, Catherine. [back]

5. Landor’s Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824).[back]

6. John Taylor and Augustus Hessey (1785–1870), publishers, including of the London Magazine.[back]

7. Possibly Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798–1862), brother-in-law of George Ticknor, a prominent figure in Boston society, philanthropist and Mayor of Boston 1837–1839.[back]

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4029. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, 9 June [1823]

4029. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, 9 June [1823]

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer