4072. Robert Southey to Caroline Bowles, 22 October 1823
Address: To/ Miss Bowles/ Buckland/ Lymington/ Hampshire
Endorsement: No 33 To Miss Caroline Bowles
MS: British Library, Add MS 47889. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 36–37.
Thank you for following my directions in halving the note, I shall gain by it another letter, & yet the advice was given in sober prudence, & not with that selfish purpose. I am heartily glad that you have reached home safely, & with so few disagreables on the way, that the fear of such a journey will not stand in the way of your repeating it, for I will not believe that you have taken leave of these mountains for ever. You must not talk of sunset pleasures yet. Your evening is far distant, & many such pleasures as this country can afford (they are not light ones) – are in store I hope both for you & for me. If you are half as desirous of partaking them again, as I am that you should do so, the difficulties in the way will only be thought of with the view of overcoming them. Whatever we may think of dreams, you will allow that day dreams may have some truth in them, & you have borne no small part in mine since your departure. These at least may bring about their accomplishment.
On the day that you reached Oxford, we effected our Watenlath excursion. Go whither I will among these lakes & mountains, I have more ghosts than Sir Thomas More
to accompany me, – there is scarcely a spot but brings with it some indelible recollection of those whom I have loved & lost. But the predominant feeling on this day was regret that you were not with us. Since then I have been close at work, preparing for my departure, & yet after all I must take with me work to finish at Streatham.
We set out on Monday Nov. 3d. Edith & I shall leave the Ladies of the Island
at Derby, & go to Sir George Beaumonts at Cole-Orton, near Ashby de la Zouch for two or three days; probably we shall reach London on the 15th. From thence you shall hear of my movements. I have a wide way to travel, & the sunniest spot in the prospect is the New Forest.
Lamb’s letter
I have not seen, & your account of it is the first intimation which I have received of its temper. It will not disturb mine. I am sorry that he should have acted thus rashly & unreasonably; but no infirmity of mind on his part shall make me act or feel unkindly towards one whose sterling goodness I respect as much as I admire his genius. If the matter of the letter requires answer or explanation from me, I shall probably give it at the end of the Quarterly Review as the writer of the article. Any thing personal, if I notice it at all, I shall notice privately by letter.
You can hardly imagine how inirritable I am to any attacks thro the press. When I found it have taken occasion to xxx handle Jeffrey,
or found it necessary to take up the pen against Lord Byron,
it has been more with a feeling of strength than of anger, – something like Rumpelstilzchen
feels when he lays his paw upon a rat.
Cuthbert desires me to tell you that that worthy cat (who has recently been created a Marquis) is very well, only that he has a little cough; & moreover that he has shown an improper liking for cream cheese. There is a rival of his, an interloper named Hurleburlebuss who prowls about the house, & we are sometimes awakened by their nightly encounters. I am charged also to send Rumpels love to Donna,
& Cuthberts to you. – There are remembrances moreover from each & all of my womankind, with all of whom you have left such an impression as you would desire to leave. For myself, – but I must have done, for time presses, & the maid is waiting for my dispatches. At present therefore I will say no more – than –
Dear friend – farewell
RS.
