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Brotherton Library, University of Leeds. 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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Leave-taking is one of the evils of life, & I do not therefore regret that we did not meet in London just to say
farewell. Here I am, recovered from three months of mental dissipation, & from three hundred miles mail-coaching, – the least
fatiguing of the two: – my wife & children
I learnt at the Chamberlains Office that it is necessary to give you a letter of Attorney, because a receipt cannot be
transmitted from hence, but must be signed at the office. Will you therefore procure one empowering you to receive all monies payable
to me as Laureate, &
Henry will thro Rickman transmit it to me in a frank for signature, & I will return it thro the same channel, & apprize you at what
time the salary will be in course of payment. My appointment dates singularly enough from the 12th of August which
is both the Prince’s birth day & my own, – the day after Pye’s
death.
From Ballantyne I have heard nothing since I saw you – but a
letter from Scott was awaiting me, in which he says he had seen James B (the Printer, had spoken to him on the subject, & was convinced that I should
find the treatment which I was so well entitled to expect. – I account for the delay in closing my account by the much longer &
heavier ones which they have to settle. That I shall lose my share in the Register
When the Laureateship was first mentioned to me I thought little of it, & doubted whether I should accept it, if it
were placed at my acceptance. I think very differently now. As an honour it was given me, & honourable I will make it. & I
derive a satisf from the use to which it is applied a satisfaction greater than a much larger salary would have given me if
devoted to my own immediate use.
My Ode
I found some valuable letters from Spain on my return. One from D Pedro Maria Ricamong in Spain, & shall obtain from
thence every information which I know how to ask for. This is a great point. Perhaps no historical work was ever undertaken under more
favourable circumstances. – I have not seen you since the battle of Leipsic!rs Walpolexxx what she thinks <now> of my rose-coloured politics? My faith was that nothing founded upon evil could be
permanent, – & that faith is now abundantly justified. We have now to look for the recovery of Italy,on the capture of Davousts army,Pereat iste
I am anxious to know what intelligence you have from Brazil concerning the ship.
I left directions concerning the Bust.
Remember me to John Coleridge when you see him.