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. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 8–10 [in part].
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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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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I received Rokebyxxxx spirit, & (with sure & certain anticipation) upon its success. – Let me correct
an error in your last note. – in time for the second edition. Robin the Devil
I enjoyed your poem the more, being – for the first time, able to follow you in its scenery.xxxxx
old woman who would not let me thro the gate till I had promised her to call at the House, had been the porter or the porters wife
when in the days of your story, Edmund might have sung long enough before he would have got in. However, when this
awkwardness was over I was very much obliged to her for forcing me into such society, – for nothing could be more hospitable or more
gratifying than the manner in which I & my companions were received. The xxxxx xxxx <glen> is, for its extent,
more beautiful than any thing I have seen in England. It has somewhat of the character of Downton,ana for your
description, the result of the hardest days march I ever yet made. For we traced the stream from its for spring-head on the
summit of Cross fell, – about a mile from the source of the Tyne, – all the way to High force.
Thank you for your information about Munchausen,xxx history almost as odd as any thing in the book which bears his name. If the Omniana be reprinted (which I pray
Fortune that xxx it may, in order that it may be better printed) I shall gladly avail myself of it.xx it exist as I suppose, the civet-cat, & the pole-cat constitutions would perhaps be found
liable each to its own class of diseases.
You tell me there is a volume of the Somers Tractsst 2d – &4th volumes, & Ballantyne who tells me the third was lost, & promises that the set shall be
compleated, seems in no hurry to send me any more, tho I have more than once told him I should be glad to have them at hand, – books
being with me a capital which are always put out to immediate interest.
In the course of next month I hope you will receive my life of Nelson,con
amore.xx with the year 1812; for it would have given me a proper & most blessed conclusion. – Some of my periodical
employments I must ere long relinquish, or I shall never complete the great historical worksvery little likely that any other person in
the country will ever so qualify himself again. Yonder they are lying unfinished while I suffer myself to be tempted to other
occupations, of more immediate emolument indeed, – but in all other respects of infinitely less importance. Meanwhile time passes on,
& I who knew that I was am of a short-lived race, & xxxxx[MS torn]xxxx have a sense of the
uncertainty of life more continually present in one in my feelings thoughts & feelings than most men, –
sometimes reproach myself for not devoting my time to those works upon which reputation, & perhaps the fortunes of my family, must
eventually rest, while the will is so strong, the ability yet unimpaired, – & the leisure permitted me. – If I do not
greatly deceive myself my Hist. of Portugal will be one of the most curious books of its kind that has every yet appeared, the matter
is in itself so interesting, I have hunted out so much that is recondite, & have so much strong light to throw upon things which
have never been elucidated before.
We have mismanaged in Spain: – we have mismanaged in America – oh those frigates! those frigates!Guerriere on 19 August 1812, HMS Macedonian on 25 October 1812 and
HMS Java on 29 December 1812.costs <running expenses of the> armament should be added to the Bill, –
& so I would go on should they not chuse to put a stop to the illuminations by submission, – or till Philadelphia, Baltimore – New
York &c – were laid in ashes. – They should feel the power which they have so wantonly provoked. – I am now reading
American-history of which I have a considerable collection. It promises xxxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxxxx xx xxxx is full of
an instructive matter lessons tending to show that it is as much better for our hearts to have been born &
bred in a country of old & venerable establishments as it is for our manners & imagination.