4212. Robert Southey to Walter Scott, 8 July 1824

 

Address: To/ Sir Walter Scott Bart./ Abbotsford / Melrose
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Endorsement: 109
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 3899. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Wilfred Partington, The Private Letter-Books of Sir Walter Scott. Selections from the Abbotsford manuscripts ... Edited by Wilfred Partington (London, 1930), pp. 80–82.

Keswick. 8 July. 1824.
My dear Scott

Mrs Hughes owed me some reparation for sending me last week an account of Elmsleys death, which thank God, has proved to be untrue, & there are hopes of his recovery. She has made good amends for this needless sorrow (a heavy one the loss of Elmsley would be!), by the real pleasure which it has given me to hear from you. The last <letter> which I received was written just after Ticknor left you, early in 1819,

(1)

Sir Walter Scott to Robert Southey, 4 April 1819, John Gibson Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, 7 vols (London, 1837–1838), VI, pp. 237–241.

– & the last which I wrote was addrest to you in London to offer xxx a very hearty congratulation upon the honorary addition to your name.

(2)

Scott was created a baronet on 22 April 1820. Southey’s letter of congratulation does not seem to survive.

But I hate accounts of every kind, – so if two or three books of mine since that time have not found their way to you – as they ought to have done according to my directions – requiescant in pace.

(3)

‘Rest in peace’. Southey was referring to his Vision of Judgement (1821) and History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

It was a mortification to me that I did not see you during my Scotch tour five years ago. But I past thro Selkirk at midnight in the mail, to join a party at Edinburgh, whom I brought home with me by the Glasgow road.

(4)

Southey arrived in Edinburgh at 5:15 a.m. on 17 August 1819, having travelled by mail coach from Carlisle. There he met his travelling companions, John and Susannah Rickman, their children, William (1812–1886) and Frances Rickman (dates unknown) and a Miss Pigott. It is difficult to be sure of her identity, but she might have been Emma Pigott (dates unknown), younger daughter and co-heiress of James Pigott (d. 1822) of Fitz-Hall, Iping, Sussex. She married, in 1824, Edward Brice Bunny (d. 1867) of Speen Hill, Berkshire. Their return journey to Keswick via Glasgow took place from 27 September–1…

I saw a great deal of Scotland during that journey, & was so interested with what I saw that I live in hopes of one day seeing the rest. I had resolution enough to keep a minute journal, which may probably see the light when the booksellers come to pick my bones & make their last meal of me.

(5)

Journal of a Tour in Scotland in 1819, ed. Charles Harold Herford (1929).

It was worth doing, for Telford was one of my companions so that I saw his piers, his roads & the Caledonian Canal in progress, & had all the information which I could desire concerning them, & the localities every where.

Wordsworth, who is almost always on the move, has lately returned from the south.

(6)

Wordsworth had visited London in March 1824, returning in June after a round of visits to friends in East Anglia and the Midlands.

How he is employed I know not, not having seen him since my own return in February last: but we shall probably see another crop of Odes & Sonnets, in due season, – for the older he grows the more prolific he xx becomes. My springs are not dry, but they have ceased to flow. You remember poor Daniels complaint in his old age,

– Time has done to me this wrong
To make me write too much & live too long. (7)

Time has brought no such injury to me as yet, but it has made me much more willing to learn than to teach, & the xx eagerness with which I pursue my researches is much greater than the inclination which I feel for composing their results. Were it not that this also is a mode of learning (& sometimes the best) I should find composition but an irksome task. At present I am printing the second volume of the Peninsular War,

(8)

Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

& making collections for a longer series of historical works than I shall live to finish.

(9)

Southey’s unfinished ‘History of Portugal’.

As a proof however that my right hand hath not quite forgotten its cunning,

(10)

Psalms 137: 5.

I will send you an Ode written upon occasion of the Kings visit to your country;

(11)

‘Scotland, an Ode, Written after the King’s Visit to that Country. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat’, The Bijou: Or Annual of Literature and the Arts (London, 1828), pp. 81–88.

– one of my annual tasks, & yet written with good will. It must travel to London for a frank. I will send it because it expresses a friendly [MS missing] as well as a British feeling.

It would give me great pleasure if I could accept your hospitable invitation. There are few things which I should like so well – but we are looking for a succession of guests who will engage us till the autumn is advanced: & what with indisposition which always lays me up at this time of year (this year more severely than usual) – & engagements of society & exercise which follow, – I find myself very much the slave of the desk during the other months.

Mrs S. unites with me in kindest respects to Lady Scott.

Believe me Dear Sir Walter
yrs most truly
Robert Southey

Notes

1. Sir Walter Scott to Robert Southey, 4 April 1819, John Gibson Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, 7 vols (London, 1837–1838), VI, pp. 237–241.[back]
2. Scott was created a baronet on 22 April 1820. Southey’s letter of congratulation does not seem to survive.[back]
3. ‘Rest in peace’. Southey was referring to his Vision of Judgement (1821) and History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
4. Southey arrived in Edinburgh at 5:15 a.m. on 17 August 1819, having travelled by mail coach from Carlisle. There he met his travelling companions, John and Susannah Rickman, their children, William (1812–1886) and Frances Rickman (dates unknown) and a Miss Pigott. It is difficult to be sure of her identity, but she might have been Emma Pigott (dates unknown), younger daughter and co-heiress of James Pigott (d. 1822) of Fitz-Hall, Iping, Sussex. She married, in 1824, Edward Brice Bunny (d. 1867) of Speen Hill, Berkshire. Their return journey to Keswick via Glasgow took place from 27 September–1 October 1819; see Journal of a Tour in Scotland in 1819, ed. Charles Harold Herford (London, 1929), pp. 1–4, 254–269.[back]
5. Journal of a Tour in Scotland in 1819, ed. Charles Harold Herford (1929).[back]
6. Wordsworth had visited London in March 1824, returning in June after a round of visits to friends in East Anglia and the Midlands.[back]
7. Samuel Daniel (1562–1619; DNB). Southey slightly misquotes from Daniel’s poem, ‘To the Prince’, lines 107–108, which was prefixed to his play Philotas (1604). The original text reads ‘But yeeres hath done this wrong,/ To make me write too much, and liue to long.’[back]
8. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
9. Southey’s unfinished ‘History of Portugal’.[back]
10. Psalms 137: 5.[back]
11. ‘Scotland, an Ode, Written after the King’s Visit to that Country. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat’, The Bijou: Or Annual of Literature and the Arts (London, 1828), pp. 81–88.[back]
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