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Bodleian Library, MS Don. d. 3. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 161–163. Dating note: 7 March 1798 was a Wednesday. The letter was completed the following day.
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.
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If, as I am apprehensive, my letter inclosing a two pound bill did not reach Burnett, you are ignorant that it is my intention to visit Yarmouth at the end of May, & pass a fortnight with you. how I shall arrange my march remains to be settled, & I must consult the map, as if it be not too far out of the road I should like to see Amos Cottle at Cambridge on the way. of this however more in due season.
We are now at Bristol, on Kingsdown Parade, within a few doors of the
Montague.
My book
Is there a book society at Yarmouth like that of which Estlin
Danvers & the Morgans are members? if not I think Burnett would do well in setting
some such scheme on foot, & I will send them <him> the regulations of the Bristol one. Mr Pitt
I know not whether a little Bristol tittle-tattle may be news to Burnett – however let it go. John Morgan is to be married to
Caroline Kiddell.
I ought to have written to you before – but my leisure time is little, & no man wants more leisure than myself. the
idea of visiting Yarmouth pleases me much. I have not shaken Burnett by the hand since August 1796. I hope I look
forward to having a house in London in the course of the winter as a possible thing; so I hope George will be in town to assist my taste in fitting it up, & fill the friends bed.
this is possible, & if the possibility shall not be destroyed by any relaxation of exertion on my
part. To live always in lodgings is very expensive & very uncomfortable; I want to feel at home, & to have a home for my
friends.
Have you written any themes yet? of course I mean English th[MS torn] of all exercises I look upon this as the most useful. facility of composition is useful in every possible situation.
My Uncle Hill has been in England. he came however no farther than Falmouth, & merely to recover his health by the effect of a voyage, for he had been some time unwell. he wishes Tom to get on the Lisbon station, & if Tom chuses to go, Lord Proby will take him over. I have written him word of this, & he will determine as his judgment thinks best.
Thursday.