4064. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, 30 September–10 October 1823
Address: To/ The Reverend Herbert Hill/ Streatham/ Surrey
Stamped: KESWICK 298
Postmarks: E/ 14 Oct 14/ 1823; [partial] F.NOON 10/ 14
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, WC 236. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 404–407 [in part].
A Hampshire acquaintance of yours is here, Mr Portal, with his wife & daughter.
(1)
Probably William Portal (1755–1845) of Ashe Parke, Hampshire, his wife Sophia, née Slade (1760–1837), and their daughter, Sophia Portal (d. 1875). The Portal family were descended from Huguenot refugees and owned the firm that produced banknotes for the Bank of England.
The young Lady & her father joined us yesterday in a caravan excursion of one & twenty miles, – a caravan it may be called, for the party consisted of nineteen persons besides three attendants, three carts & five saddle horses. We dined on the pass between Buttermere & Borrodale, by one of our beautiful mountain-streams. The pass itself always reminds me of a place between Ousem & Thomar where a large tabular fragment of rock is shown as the Mesa dos ladroens,
(2)
‘The Robbers’ Table’. Southey visited on 18 March 1801, noting in his Journal ‘the very wild and striking scenery’ (Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), ed. Adolfo Cabral, p. 29).
only that the mountains here are considerably higher.
Murray sent me the QR. in a frank on Saturday.
(3)
The first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) was reviewed in the Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 53–85, published 27 or 28 September 1823, by George Procter (1796–1842), Adjutant at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Prior to publication, the article had been substantially amended by John Wilson Croker.
The reviewal of my first volume has all the outward & visible marks of personal civility with regard to the criticism at the end. – I have not inserted the whole of any state papers; but have given as much of them as seemed necessary in their own words.
(4)
Procter had criticised Southey for ‘the introduction into the text, of entire proclamations, manifestoes and other state papers, of which his readers would be better satisfied that he should have given the substance only, compressed and abridged according to the relative importance and interest of the documents’ (Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 84).
The legends &c to which the writer objects as interrupting the narration, are introduced always to relieve it, & as elucidating the character & feelings of the people.
(5)
Procter had also objected to Southey’s digressions into Iberian legends as ‘misplaced interruptions rather than ornaments’ (Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 85).
And as for the arrangement of the Portugueze insurrection it only appears defective to him, because he is accustomed to consider Portugal in the lump, & not to regard its separate provinces as the he would do those of Spain.
(6)
Procter’s final criticism was that the details of Southey’s account of the Portuguese rising against the French occupation in 1808 were ‘carelessly presented to the reader, and want that judicious combination into masses which would have given them both importance and interest’ (Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 85).
I do not know who wrote the paper. The last article is Blanco’s,
(7)
Blanco White published a review of Michael Joseph Quin (1796–1843; DNB), A Visit to Spain; Detailing the Transactions which Occurred during a Residence in that Country in the Latter Part of 1822, and the First Four Months of 1823. With an Account of the Removal of the Court from Madrid to Seville; and General Notices of the Manners, Customs, Costume and Music of the Country, in Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 240–276, published 27 or 28 September 1823.
– a very good one it is. Indeed the number has none of the usual faults of the Review, except that there is a worthless article upon the worthless subject of political economy.
(8)
Thomas Malthus’s (1766–1834; DNB) review of Thomas Tooke (1774–1858; DNB), Thoughts and Details on the High and Low Prices of the Last Thirty Years, from 1793 to 1822 (1823) in Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 214–239, published 27 or 28 September 1823.
I am quite in the dark concerning the management of the Review, having heard nothing from Gifford since the commencement of his illness except a complimentary message upon xxx xxx the first part of my reviewal of Burnet,
(9)
Bishop Burnet’s History of his Own Time: with the Suppressed Passages of the First Volume and Notes by the Earls of Dartmouth and Hardwicke, and Speaker Onslow, Hitherto Unpublished; to Which are Added the Cursory Remarks of Swift, and Other Observations (1823), no. 498 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a new edition of Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715; DNB), History of My Own Time (1724–1734), edited by Martin Routh (1755–1854; DNB). Southey reviewed it in Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 165–214, published 27 or 28 September 1823.
which came with the proof sheets.
I must get another paper ready before I leave home, – for the most cogent of all reasons, – & in fact I have this day made a large stride in it: Dr Dwight
(10)
Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), Travels in New-England and New-York (1821–1822), no. 881 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, reviewed by Southey in Quarterly Review, 30 (October 1823), 1–40, published 17 April 1824.
(poor Humphreys’s
(11)
David Humphreys (1752–1818), United States Minister to Portugal 1791–1796, Minister to Spain, 1796–1801. He had pursued a wide-ranging career as a soldier, politician, breeder of merino sheep and author. Southey had known him in Lisbon in 1796. While Humphreys was at Yale 1767–1771, Timothy Dwight had been amongst his closest friends.
friend) affords me a good subject, & good materials in his Travels. His miscellaneous facts supply matter for the first part of the paper, & his political opinions & speculations text enough for the remainder, in which I shall at the same time change the tone of the Review concerning America, & introduce some wholesome truths which it behoves both countries to understand. As this requires no additional reading I shall not be long about it: – possibly I may improve it in the proofs when I reach Streatham, where I know you have the Federalist.
(12)
Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), James Madison (1751–1836) and John Jay (1745–1829), The Federalist: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787 (1788).
I shall probably write the last chapter of the B of the Church with you, – possibly the two
(13)
The Book of the Church, 2 vols (London, 1824), pp. 347–467 (covering 1625–1660) and pp. 468–528 (covering 1660–1688).
last as there is a strong motive for not delaying my departure longer than the first week in next month.
(14)
Southey finally left Keswick for London on 3 November 1823.
Our friends on the Island, four in number
(15)
Louisa Charter, and Elizabeth Charter (1782–1860), friend of the poet George Crabbe (1754–1832; DNB). They were the sisters of Emma Peachy, first wife of William Peachy, and nieces of Sir Charles Malet (1752–1815; DNB), 1st Baronet, a prominent diplomat with the East India Company. Peachy had lent the Charter sisters his home on Derwent Island. They were accompanied by Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB), the maternal uncle of the Charter sisters. Their other companion was one of Sir Charles Malet’s three children in India with Am…
will then be journeying to London, & if Edith May & I join them we shall fill two chaises which will be to the convenience of both parties. In this case we shall travel leisurely & see sights on our way, both in the West Riding & Derbyshire. At Derby we must part, as if Sir George Beaumont is at Cole-Orton I must pass a few days with him. The Beaumonts are now old acquaintance of mine, & they have known Edith from her earliest childhood. Sir George has promised me a picture.
Oct 10
At length Gifford has written to me. He tells me that he has promised to conduct the review if he can to the 60th number,
(16)
Quarterly Review, 30 (January 1824), published 28 August 1824; Gifford co-edited one more issue, Quarterly Review, 31 (April 1824), published 30 December 1824.
& then he will have done with it, – if he has life & strength to carry it so far.
A curious person by name Morrison whose residence is in your neighbourhood (Balham Hill) spent an evening lately with me.
(17)
James Morrison (1789–1857; DNB), an immensely wealthy businessman. His main business at this time was a general drapery firm in Fore Street, City of London. Morrison was originally from Middle Wallop in Wiltshire, though his mother came from Shapwick in Somerset, and he seems to have spent some of his childhood there.
He is a Somersetshire man, who getting engaged as a shopman in a retail haberdashers shop, a few years ago, struck out a new plan of doing business, by which he enabled that house made the annual returns of the concern above a million, & the profits from 30 to 40,000 £, – half ruining thereby all the old established houses <in that line> & compel[MS missing] them to act upon the same plan. He married his masters daughter
(18)
Mary Ann Todd (1795–1887), the daughter of Joseph Todd (d. 1835), haberdasher. She married James Morrison in 1814.
& at an age certainly not exceeding four or five & thirty is at this moment worth not less that 150,000 £. The strangest part of the story is [MS missing] he seems to have no love either for xx business or money. He was bred up as a Dissenter, & so became of course a Radical, & in natural process an Unbeliever. His success in life has cured him of Radicalism, & a very enquiring mind has not allowed him to rest in unbelief, & he is now on his Pilgrims Progress,
(19)
John Bunyan (1628–1688; DNB), The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), the story of an everyman figure’s journey to salvation.
having just got free from the Free-thinking Christians
(20)
The ‘Free Thinking Christians’ were a denomination founded by Samuel Thompson (1766–1837; DNB) in 1798. At this time their meetings were in High Holborn, London. They rejected the sacraments and the Trinity and had attracted some notoriety.
& in a mood xx xx which made him very willing to receive a few hints from me concerning his journey. When I have added that he was in his way to Owens at Lanark, to look at that establishment, & if he found it such as Owen reports it, to vest 5000 £ in the projected experiment of the Owenite community,
(21)
Robert Owen (1771–1858; DNB), the manager and owner of the textile mill at New Lanark 1799–1825 and a utopian thinker. Morrison invested in the proposed community to be founded on Owen’s principles at Orbiston, near Motherwell.
– you will know as much of this singular man as I do. But I shall certainly pay him a visit from Streatham.
Phillimore
(22)
John George Phillimore (1808–1865; DNB), the eldest surviving son of Joseph Phillimore, had assaulted Edward Hill, a fellow pupil, and King’s Scholar, at Westminster School. Like his father, Phillimore was educated at Westminster School (1817–1824) and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1828, MA 1831). In later life he was variously a Clerk at the Board of Control 1827–1832, a barrister and a Liberal MP for Leominster 1852–1857.
must be what we used to call at Westminster a great beast: & I should xxx commit little injustice were I to say that the Master who allows a second offence of this kind to pass without applying an effectual remedy, is no better himself. A short time however will alter Edward’s situation greatly for the better.
We shall start the first week in November & if the weather will permit, look at the Yorkshire Caves, Bolton Abbey,
(23)
A twelfth-century Augustinian monastery in North Yorkshire.
& the Peak on the way, – making the journey pleasurable as far as we can. I shall stand in great need of the Taylors assistance on my arrival, & of the shoemakers also, for the long procrastination of this journey has reduced my wardrobe to a very low state. The season will suit me better than if more persons were in town, as I shall escape some invitations & have more time for my friends. – Love to my Aunt & the children –
God bless you
RS.
Clarkson who was crippled with rheumatism has been cured by the Meadow Saffron.
(24)
Meadow saffron, also known as autumn crocus, although highly toxic was traditionally used for as a remedy for gout and rheumatism. Its side effects were severe, including a slowing of the heart, lethargy, vomiting and diarrhoea. Fatalities were not uncommon.
It operated upon him, he says, like magic.
