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MS untraced; text is taken from Robert Galloway Kirkpatrick, ‘The Letters of Robert Southey to Mary Barker From 1800 to 1826’ (unpublished PhD, Harvard, 1967), 224–228.. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), II, pp. 1–4.
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.
The worst part of your letter is that which relates to your own health; look well to that & Time will do the
rest. It is better to have a sister dead than that – that is certain, – but it is better to have her dead than
miserable, – than for instance to have her years in dying of a cancer, or what is worse of a broken heart from the ill
usage of a husband, like Mrs Gonnes sister. I am very glad you thought of Carlisle, – he is truly a kind hearted man, & even his profession has not
hardened him. xxxx
xxx xxx to
whom you could have gone; & you may rely upon him with the most perfect confidence that he will do whatever can be done by
human skill. He is no favourite of mine, but of his talents I have the highest possible opinion. – It is useless to afflict
yourself. Against this calamity, & against still greater ones you can bear up, & must bear up. Did you ever read Mrs
Carters Epictetus?
As for your damned cousins or uncles or whatever they be I could wring their necks off, – & if
xxx were in my hands his would be in some danger, xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx –
This cause of trouble however time will wear down: the first thing the human mind does under any affliction, is to set about
bearing it, – as instinctively & as surely as life sets about healing a cut as soon as it is inflicted, –
& happily few mental wounds are mortal. What other evils you allude to of course I cannot guess, & perhaps if I knew them
should not allow that they were such as ought to make you unhappy. – Look to your health, & as soon as you can xxx xxx
xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx – come once more to Keswick, – lakes & mountains are good friends, & will do you more good than a host
of comforters or buckets full of physic.
I have now much to tell you concerning myself – & had indeed begun to tell it you in a more playfull mood. Know
then that I am settled at Keswick, for an indefinite time, with no prospect of removing
from it. Some plans of Coleridge made it necessary for me either to
determine upon quitting this house at a given time or upon remaining with it.
The first I could not do, for want of means – which is in plain English for want of money; so I determined upon the second, &
it so happens that this topsey-turvey in the ministry has made me well satisfied with my choice.shall smile at my having a pension from the Treasury.) You may
congratulate me, – but not upon an accession of fortune; – for the truth is that hitherto I have received 160£ a year from Wynn (which is all I have except what I earn) – & that now of course I shall
receive this no longer, – for Wynn is not a rich man. And as his Majesty is
graciously pleased to give me 200, so is he graciously pleased to stop 56£ xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx out of it for fees &
taxes, & eke – also to pay it so irregularly, that I am told he who is only a quarter in arrears is in good luck. I am
therefore a loser by this bounty of 16£ a year during the war; When the income tax is taken off I shall be 4£ a gainer – but
always have the inconvenience of uncertain remittances. I gain by it in as much as I cease to receive any fresh obligations, – tho
it would be absurd to say there was much pain in this – for in such cases I just take as I would give. Had Wynn his brothers fortune, or were he still a single man
with his own, I should even have preferred receiving from him rather than from the public – but as it is, it is best as it is.
Accordingly settled I am in this house – we are inclosing the garden & planting currant trees & shrubs. The parlour is to be papered with cartridge paper – & the abominable curtains died of a chocolate brown which will make them decent – they are making fringes for them. – My room to have white curtains – a carpet, – & all the books coming – All the books – think of that Senhora! – We wait only for fine weather to have the plaisterers, then the painters, & then our work begins. See now how useful you would be in the way of beautifying & think how many a ragged regiment of books will stand in need of you. See now if it be possible for you to come, whether you can in your conscience refuse coming!
Mrs Coleridge is gone to her husbands relations in Devonshire,
Jackson assists me in Reptonizing