4080. Robert Southey to Caroline Bowles, 2 November 1823
Address: [in another hand] London Fifth Nov 1823/ Miss Bowles/ Buckland/ Lymington/ Hants/ Fm Rickman
Postmark: FREE/ 5 NO 5/ 1823
Endorsement: No 35 To Miss Caroline Bowles/ Keswick 2 Novr 1823
MS: British Library, Add MS 47889. ALS; 3p.
Previously published: Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 40–41 [in part].
I once declared in a poem that I never put out the eye of a Cyclops;
& I now declare with equal sincerity that I never offered any outrage to the nose of Sir Cloudesly Shovel.
You have a good heart, & it stands you in good stead. Would that some of my family had a portion of your courage. But the truth is that your Job’s comforters
are as unwise in entertaining their fears as they are in communicating them.
There is danger in acting against smugglers & poachers, because smugglers & poachers think they have natural justice on their side, & have some show of reason for thinking so: they therefore think themselves aggrieved when they are prosecuted for their illicit practises, & feel as if they had a right to revenge themselves upon any one who has taken part against them. But this is not the case with those who have committed a breach of the moral law: they are self-convicted of a known sin, & here in England not even a Bow Street Officer
has ever suffered the slightest injury from after-revenge, – tho some times very serious ones in the discharge of their duty. – You may therefore sleep in peace. – Perhaps it may <would> lessen in some little degree the unpleasantness of your appearance at Winchester, if you had any acquaintance there; – & I can very well introduce you to Mrs Hill’s sisters
who reside in that city. But I shall see you before that time; & persuade you, I hope, not only almost, but wholly, that there are yet hopes & enjoyments in store for you in this world.
Before this reaches you I shall be far on my journey. I am now in all the disquiet & discomfort of preparing for it. We depart on Monday, & if the weather permit us to see all we purpose seeing on the way, it will be just a week before we arrive at Cole Orton. Direct to me at my brothers in Q Anne Street, & remember that a letter from you will always be a pleasure to me. Tell me what stages pass thro Lymington by which I can find my way from the West: I shall be coming from Exeter, most likely just after Xmas, – but of course you shall be acquainted with my movements. My time must be short, – & yet I am sure you will believe me when I say that were inclination alone to be consulted I know not how long it might prove. The work which I carry with me in an unfinished state,
– or rather which I have to do must be done at Streatham before my departure xxx for the West, because it will be wanted for the press. And if this were not the case what inclination should I have to spend my <that> time in composition, which is to be past with you? To be put in the call of silence then would be to endure penance indeed.
This has remained unfinished till the last minute. It is now Sunday night, – my table sadly disfurnished, every thing packed, & my last dispatches on the wing. God bless you
yrs affectionately
RS.
Keswick. 2 Nov. 1823
