4040. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 9 July 1823

Address: To/ D^r Southey/ Queen Anne Street/ Cavendish Square/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 12 JY 12/ 1823
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Don. d. 4. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 9 July. 1823

My dear Harry

The question about the Royal Society of Lit. does not require a moments deliberation, the offer carrying with it little profit & less credit.

⁽¹⁾

It is pitiable to think that when an Academy upon a proper footing might be serviceable to literature & honourable to the country & to the persons connected with it such a petty paltry asinine scheme as this appears to be should have been brought forward, the material effect of which must be to bring the name of an Academy into contempt.

There is news of Tom.

⁽²⁾

Sarah received a letter yesterday from the daughter of her Quebec cousin,

⁽³⁾

saying that he had arrived safely & after staying with them three days had embarked in the steam packet for Montreal. This letter contains an ugly opinion of M^r Bell, that he was glad Cap^t S. had not brought out his family,

⁽⁴⁾

as he would now have leisure to travel thro the country, & judge for himself, how far it would conduce to their permanent happiness to bring them there. I was sorry also to observe that the letter expressed no pleasure at the prospect of seeing her, tho friendly enough in other respects. But one of xx two things is plain. Either these Bells believe that Tom will give up the plan of emigration in disgust, when he sees the country; – or Sarah has calculated upon more kindness in fractional cousinship than she is likely to find.

I went up Skiddaw last week & on the following day had a considerable haemorrhoidal discharge which xx left behind it a troublesome collection of haemorrhoids, – not a return of my old complaint. They surprized me so severely yesterday during a walk that I almost fear to repeat the experiment.

EMay is recovering from a bilious attack which will leave her much reduced in strength: I shall probably delay my departure now till the middle of autumn, for the sake of taking her with me.

⁽⁵⁾

You had better send my letters in an official frank thro Wynn. And the parcels by Murray when he may have anything to send, which ought to be now with the Number just published,

⁽⁶⁾

unless it be on the road.

I have written three Inscriptions for the Caledonian Canal

⁽⁷⁾

– which if you would like to see them before they get into print (Heaven knows when) EMay shall copy for you. One states the nature & purport of the work – a second the features & difficulties of it, & the third is in honour of the architect, – who deserves all the honour that can be paid him

Tho physic has not cured my cold, it seems to have rendered it less violent. It is still bad enough at times.

Keswick returns, as well it may
The echo of that sneeze –
And folks at Portinscale may say
God bless him, – if they please.

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. The Royal Society of Literature had been founded in 1820. However, its first Annual General Meeting did not take place until 17 June 1823, where it was resolved to create 20 Associate Fellows, recommended by the Society’s Council. The Associate Fellows were to write a yearly essay and receive 100 guineas per annum.[back]

2. Tom Southey sailed from Whitehaven on 20 April 1823 on the brig Maria and reached Quebec on 27 May. He was considering emigrating to Canada.[back]

3. Possibly Margaret Bell (1802–1880), eldest daughter of Matthew Bell (1769–1849), a wealthy merchant, iron manufacturer and land speculator, originally from Berwick-upon-Tweed, and a relation of Sarah Southey. In 1820 Margaret married Robert Dunn (1790–1825), a local government official, and then, in 1836, William Walker (1790–1863), President of the Quebec Fire Assurance Company. However, Matthew Bell had twelve children and it is possible that Sarah Southey’s correspondent was one of Margaret’s younger sisters, especially the two nearest to her in age: Frances Bell (1804–1850), who married the merchant James Forsyth (1802–1867) in 1828; or Anne Bell (1805–1861), who married Lieutenant-Colonel John-George Irvine (1802–1871) in 1826.[back]

4. Tom Southey was only accompanied by Robert Castle Southey (1813–1828), his eldest son.[back]

5. Southey left for London on 3 November accompanied by Edith May Southey.[back]

6. Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), ‘Histoire de la Théophilantropie, depuis sa Naissance jusqu’à son Extinction’, part of Grégoire’s Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde, 2 vols (Paris, 1814), II, pp. 55–171, appeared in Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 493–536, published 8 July 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]

7. Southey wrote three ‘Inscriptions for the Caledonian Canal’: ‘Inscription for a Tablet at Banavie, on the Caledonian Canal’, Friendship’s Offering. A Literary Album (London, 1826), pp. [167]–168 (paying tribute to Thomas Telford); and ‘At Clachnacharry’ (describing the ‘nature & purport’ of the canal) and ‘At Fort Augustus’ (describing its ‘features & difficulties’), The Anniversary; or, Poetry and Prose for MDCCCXXIX (London, 1829), pp. 194–197.[back]

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4040. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 9 July 1823

4040. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 9 July 1823

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer