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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 23. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), II, pp.258–261 [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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I have seen a sight more dreamy & cheerful than any scenery that fancy ever yet devised for Faery Land. – We had walked down to the Lake side, it was a delightful day, the sun shining, & a few white clouds hanging motionless in the sky. the opposite shore of Derwent water consists of one long mountain which suddenly terminates in an arch – thus [a large ‘u’ shape drawn here] – & thro that opening you see a long valley between mountains, & bounded by mountain beyond mountain – to the right of this arch the heights are more varied & of greater elevation. Now as there was not a breath of air stirring, the surface of the Lake was so perfectly still that it became one great mirror, & all its water disappeared. the whole line of shore was represented as vividly & steadily as it existed in its actual being – the arch – the vale within – the single houses far within the vale – the smoke from their chimneys – the farthest hills – & the shadow & substance joined at their bases so indivisibly that you could make no separation even with your judgement. As I stood on the shore Heaven & the Clouds seemed lying under me I was looking down into the sky, & the whole range of mountains having one line of summits under my feet, & another above me seemed to be suspended between two firmaments. Shut your eyes & dream of a scene so unnatural & so beautiful. What I have said is most strictly & scrupulously true – but it was one of those happy moments that can seldom occur, for the least breath stirring would have shaken the whole vision & at once unrealized it. I have before seen a partial appearance, but never before did, & perhaps never again may lose sight of the Lake entirely – for it literally seemed like an abyss of sky below me – not fog & clouds as from a mountain – but the blue heaven spotted with a few fleecy pillows of cloud, that looked placed there for Angels to rest upon them.
I am treating with my Booksellers to publish a supplementary or companion work to Ellis’s Specimens,
With what can Isaac Reid have filled his one & twenty volumes?
Did I, or not, tell you that Madoc was to be published in the ordinary way – & not by way of subscription?xx to the wish of others, &
found my own opinion fully confirmed.
I live almost as reclusive & uniform a life as my neighbour the Bassenthwaite Toad,th of November, 1802, inclosed a toad in a bason,
and having covered the bason with a slate, deposited it about a foot beneath the surface of the earth. The bason was carefully dug
up, on the 8th Feb, last, when its inhabitant was found alive; though much thinner, after its confinement of 15
months’.damnedest dreams that ever comes athwart my brain is that I have those Latin verses to make. I xxx very often have
this dream, & it usually ends in a resolution to be my own master, & not make verses, & not stay any longer at school,
because I am too old. It is odd that school never recurs pleasantly in my dreams. it is always either thus – or with a notion that I
cannot find my books to go in with. I never dream of Oxford, perhaps my stay there was not long enough to make an impression
<sufficiently> deep. xxxx
Where do you move from Lambeth? I hope to London for your sake – such a removal might awaken your father, by being in
the world he would <might perhaps> learn to feel & act with the world.
y. 16. Thursday – 1804.