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Houghton Library, bMS Eng 265.1(25). Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 401–403.
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.
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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.
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You will, perhaps, wonder that I should not sooner have thanked you for the information in your last letter, and, thro
you, made my acknowledgment to Mr Burn
My uncle, in two letters, one written the day after the other, has urged me
to lose no time in setting about and getting ready that part of my Magnum Opusxxx delayed writing to you. – I have now written for them, & for all my books
relating to this part of the history. A good many are here already, & if neither my health nor eyes fail me expect in no very long
time to report good progress in this very interesting & important work. The whole copy of Espriella
Harry is with Wm
Taylor, & will I suppose, set off for London as soon as he hears from you. I shall direct him where & at what hour he
may hope to see you in town, – his appearance and manners I trust will please you well. Perhaps you will take him some day to Mr Burns
Tom was here, working hard at Portugueze, when his appointment arrived.
Your god-daughter is as healthy & as forward a child as can be wished. the
young Herbert sadly troubled with wind, but still very thriving. – I was, as
you may suppose, a good deal shocked at hearing of poor Isabel’s death.
Our remembrances to Mrs May. I shall not now see you so soon as I
expected, – as it will hardly be advisable that I should stir from here till this work is fairly afloat. – Have you seen the Memoirs of
Colonel Hutchinson?née Apsley; 1620–1681;