Isaac D’Israeli (1766–1848): Son of Benjamin Disraeli (1730–1816), a wealthy Italian-Jewish merchant. Isaac devoted his life to his library and miscellaneous literary works, most famously his Curiosities of Literature (1791). He corresponded with Southey on literary subjects on an intermittent basis, and dedicated the fourth edition of his The Literary Character; or the History of Men of Genius (1828) to him. Southey praised his good nature, but thought him a mixture of knowledge and ignorance.

Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847): Clergyman and bibliographer. He and Southey met at a dinner given by Longman, the publisher. Dibdin sent the Poet Laureate a copy of his expensive and lavishly illustrated Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821). This courtesy initiated a spasmodic correspondence between the two men on literary matters.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859): Writer, essayist and literary critic, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). De Quincey was the son of a successful merchant and was born in Manchester. A brilliant scholar as a child, his schooling was erratic, and though he entered Worcester College, Oxford in 1803, he did not take his degree. A passionate admirer of Wordsworth and Coleridge, he lived at Wordsworth’s former home, Dove Cottage, Grasmere, from 1809–1819, when he came to know Southey. De Quincey married Margaret Simpson (d.

Mr and Mrs Deacon: Friends of Grosvenor Charles Bedford and his family.

Kate Deacon (dates unknown): A friend of Grosvenor Charles Bedford and his family. Daughter of Mr and Mrs Deacon.

John Dawes (c. 1765-1845): Perpetual Curate of Ambleside, 1805–1845, and schoolmaster. His pupils included Hartley and Derwent Coleridge.

Jane Davy (1780-1855): Wealthy widow, socialite and distant cousin of Walter Scott. She married Humphry Davy on 11 April 1812.

Humphry Davy (1778-1829): Born in Penzance, son of Robert Davy, a woodcarver. Educated at Penzance and Truro grammar schools and apprenticed to an apothecary-surgeon in Truro. Davy had wide interests as a young man, writing poetry as well as conducting chemical experiments on the nature of heat, light and acidity. In October 1798 he went to Bristol to work for Thomas Beddoes at his Pneumatic Institution, which opened in March 1799. Davy soon became friendly with Southey and Coleridge, and they both participated in his experiments with nitrous oxide, or ‘laughing gas’.

John Davey (d. 1798): Master of Balliol College, Oxford 1785–1798.

Louisa Dauncey (dates unknown): Eldest daughter of Philip Dauncey K.C. (1759–1819) and his wife Marie (Mary) (1769–1804), daughter of Elizabeth Dolignon, who had acted in loco parentis during Southey’s time at Westminster School. Louisa married Robert Bill, an admirer of Southey’s poetry, in 1820. As Southey had known both her parents, in 1819 he wrote to her, commiserating on the death of her father, which he had read about in the newspapers.