MS: MS untraced; text taken from William Knight, Memorials of Coleorton, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1887)
Previously published: William Knight, Memorials of Coleorton, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1887), II, p. 216.
We are on the eve of our departure, and if the weather should allow us to look at the Yorkshire caves, Gordale Scar, Bolton Abbey,
(1)
A ruined twelfth-century Augustinian monastery in Yorkshire.
and the Peak Cavern,
(2)
A cave near Castleton, Derbyshire, popularly known as the Devil’s Arse.
we shall reach Matlock on Saturday night, pass the better part of the Sunday there, see our fellow-travellers
(3)
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, 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), maternal uncle of the Charter sisters. Their other companion was one of the three children born in India to Sir Charles Malet and Amber Kaur (b. 1772): Eliza (b. 1791); Henry Charles (1793–1844); and Louisa (b. 1795). They accompanied Malet to Britain in 1798 and were brought up with his children by Susanna Malet. Eliza Malet married, in 1812, Robert Ekins (1785–1874), Vicar of Godalming 1810–1833, Rector of Folke, Dorset 1833–1843, Perpetual Curate of North Wootton 1843–1854. Southey is probably referring here to Louisa Malet.
off from Derby on the Monday, and present ourselves at Coleorton on the afternoon of that day. Should our plans be curtailed by the rain, we may arrive on the Saturday.
It is no small effort for me to leave home, rooted to it as I am by so many habits. But among the pleasures to which I look on as a recompence, that of halting under your roof is not the least.
Mrs. S., her sisters,
(4)
Sara Coleridge and Mary Lovell.
and Sara Coleridge join in kind remembrances to Lady Beaumont. If the season be as prematurely severe with you as it is with us, we shall see her winter garden
(5)
The garden in a former quarry in the grounds at Coleorton, co-designed by Lady Beaumont and William Wordsworth in 1806.
to advantage. – Believe me, dear Sir George, with sincere respect and regard, yours faithfully,
ROBERT SOUTHEY.
