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British Library, Add MS 47890. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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I have been waiting for some time past in the hope of telling you the time of my departure & the arrangement of my
operations, thinking it not impossible that we might meet. But my operations are very uncomfortably disconcerted by a request on the
part of John May & another friend of my Uncles that I would go into Herefordshire & myself make enquiry upon the spot
what is the reason why a living valued at nearly 400£ a year, does not pay its own expences.m Scott
Miss Barkers visit to Bath has been prevented – for which I am sorry as I wished you to see both her & her drawings. But if you go there about this time or some few weeks hence, you will find the Colonel & his wife – who will both be very glad to talk about the Lakes with you.
As for Edward – you know my mind about him too well to require any repetition of the hopelessness with which I regard him. Carry his hat to my account – if he does not pay you – as I suppose he never will. And as for his wax likeness – if it were meant for me I should consign it to the fire – but as it is for Tom lay it aside – dont send it across the water
We have heard of Coleridge, not
from him. he was well at Naples in the early part of January, having been forced to return there, & so we are in daily expectation
of hearing that he is arrived.debut on board that ship. He was trying
to go aloft, and taking hold of a rope that was not fastened, he unfortunately came down by the run on the deck, and was killed on
the spot. He was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Coleridge, of Ottery St. Mary’. The dead boy was Bernard Frederick Coleridge
(1792–1805), the son of Lt. Col. James Coleridge (1759–1836). The father’s reaction is described in Lord Coleridge, KC, Phoenix] and was killed on the spot. He was then aged thirteen. …The news was carried to his home in a letter
sent by special messenger. His father, who was standing in the dining-room, gave a cry, and with the letter in his hand fell
senseless on the floor. He was carried to bed in a sort of fit, and for some weeks his reason, if not his life, was in
danger’.
I expect to start on the 30th & if my Herefordshire business be delayed shall go first to
Norwich for a few days. Of the many persons who will be glad to see me in town I suppose poor Burnett has the greatest reason, as I shall lend give him a hearty shove.
Of the exordium to Madoc many persons I suppose think as you do, it is in fact conceit if the poem be bad, confidence
if it be good.
One word more of Edward. he must certainly
know where his Aunt is, & ought to give Mrs Smith her address.
Harry will go to Lisbon with me in the Autumn,r Auchterlony,
I am afraid I shall hardly have done with your Books yet. There is the long passage about the Lakes to be extracted
from your Aunt,xxx is the
old traveller Fynes Moryson
Poor Jackson has symptoms of angina pectoris, but they are
accompanied with other symptoms not described in the Scotch Cyclopædia,
I will write & tell you of my movements. if I come to Bristol perhaps Rex can give me a bed – I cannot stay more than three days – one with you one with him – & one for the sake of old times I cannot but give to Cottle –
frost & snow! the bitterest weather we have had this winter.