Material from the Romantic Circles Website may not be downloaded, reproduced or disseminated in any manner without authorization unless it is for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and/or classroom use as provided by the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended.
Unless otherwise noted, all Pages and Resources mounted on Romantic Circles are copyrighted by the author/editor and may be shared only in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Except as expressly permitted by this statement, redistribution or republication in any medium requires express prior written consent from the author/editors and advance notification of Romantic Circles. Any requests for authorization should be forwarded to Romantic Circles:>
By their use of these texts and images, users agree to the following conditions:
Users are not permitted to download these texts and images in order to mount them on their own servers. It is not in our interest or that of our users to have uncontrolled subsets of our holdings available elsewhere on the Internet. We make corrections and additions to our edited resources on a continual basis, and we want the most current text to be the only one generally available to all Internet users. Institutions can, of course, make a link to the copies at Romantic Circles, subject to our conditions of use.
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.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.
Your inclosure did not catch my eye till the morning after your departure. it startled me – & I shall not attempt
to say how much it made me feel upon opening it. I shall make use of the draft at present, rather than borrow of any else, – &
replace the sum in your agents hands as soon as I can spare it.
I feel very lonely now you & the Doctor are gone,
& more deprest by your departure than his – because I know when to meet him again, but when you & I separate, it is always
doubtful when or where we may meet again. Besides Harry & I were not
boys together. However whenever we have separated it has been each time with better hopes than the last, & whenever we have met in
advanced circumstances – slow steps indeed, but sure ones. I have good hopes from the change in the Admiralty. By the by Admiral
Markhams answer to Burn’s application is ‘I will endeavour to meet your wish for the employment of Lieutenant Southey as soon as
opportunity offers’.
The best remedy for uncomfortable feelings is hard work. I turned to as soon as you were gone, & shipped off
yesterday a cargo of Espriella,recollect <can call to mind> whether of man or beast, fish flesh fowl or insect. <– no matter how
insignificant it may appear.> I shall send you letter by letter as launched to interleave & comment upon, – & believe me
xxx my fingers itch to be at it.
We have been a good deal shocked since you left us. Miss Ortonxxx
Colonel
had <sent to> asked her to meet us at dinner last Wednesday – but she was gone on a visit to Cockermouth,
& there on Thursday she died. From what I can understand she seems to have had some disease of the heart.
I have forwarded two letters to you, three to that Dog of Dumplings the Doctor. tell him I have manfully resolved to walk every day, that I began
yesterday & have persevered to day & shall continue so to do. Mrs Peachy
bids me say that both her Aunts will be gone to Seaton – so will the Trurims
You have left the country too soon – Every day improves its beauty. If Bedford comes I must make him go to the Caves
Shall I send you the Poems, Joan of Arc & Last Annual
Send me any memoranda of your whole road which may do for Espriella – also any thing about Somersetshire Devon & Cornwall – & especially Plymouth – I shall gallop on with this book, & expect to report progress at a great rate. One walks on with the better will when half the journey is over, & better still the nearer the end is in view.
My daughter often enquires for you – where’s Uncle Tom? where’s Uncle Doctor? I want’em. – Why dont em come to breakfast? was the question this evening when she called to tea.
If Danvers have not yet sent off my books, & should in
course of search for them discover a most xxx incurable duckby waggon –) But do not I do not wish him
to take any trouble f in looking for it – only to lay hands on it if it comes in his way. I can make up an article from it
for the Athenæum –
God bless you Tom. Remember me to all friends whom you may see at
Bristol. I should like to see them myself – not forgetting Joe & Juniper
t 29. 1806