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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 236–240 [in part, where it is misdated 27 May 1795].
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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You & Wynn could not more enjoy the idea of seeing me than I anticipate being with you. x as for coming now — or fixing any particular time — it may not be. my mind Bedford is very languid — I dare not say I will go at any fixed period. if you knew the fearful anxiety with which I sometimes hide myself to avoid an invitation, you would perhaps pity — perhaps despise me. there is a very pleasant familyphizmahogany has no right to chill the circle. by the by my dear Grosvenor if you know any artist about to paint a groupe of banditti I shall be very fit to sit for a young cub of ferocity. nay I have put on the look at the glass so as sometimes to frighten myself.
Well, but there is no difficulty in discovering the assiduity of affection. the eye is very eloquent — & Women are well skilld in its language — I asked the question Grosvenor you will love your sister
Edith. I look forward with feelings of delight that dim my eyes to the days when she will expect you as her brother to visit us. brown bread wild Welch raspberries — heigh ho! this schoolboy anticipation follows me thro life & xxx <Enjoyment> uniformly disappoints Expectation.
I will come to London in about five weeks. my stay will be very short. I dislike the air of St Jamess Square — & entre nous should be very unwilling to see Sir Watkin.such a man as Ld C you must not despise”. twas an odd sentence to address to me.
Poetry softens the heart Grosvenor. No man ever tagged a rhyme without being the better for it. I write but little — the task of correcting Joan is a very great one, but as the plan is fundamentally bad it is necessary the poetry should be good. the Convicts rewriting it. if I could be with you another eight weeks I believe I should write another epic poem. so essential is it to be happily situated.
I shall copy out what I have done of Madoc & send you ere long. you will find more simplicity in it than in any of my pieces & of course it is the best. I shall study three books to write it — the Bible — Homer — & Ossian.
Acugna’s Relation
8vo — London 1698
Rodrigues (Manuel) El Maragnon y Amazonas,
Madrid — folio — 1684
Garcilasso de la Vegas Royal commentaries of Peru
London — folio 1688
Voyage de M de la Condamine.
Lettre de M Godin a M de la Condamine
when you see the plan of Madoc & know that I make him the same with Mango Capac
th
Some few weeks ago I was introduced to Mr & Mrs Perkinsrs Perkins was worthy of him. I never saw a woman superiour to her in mind — nor two people with a more rational affection for each other. on their quitting this place, they urged me to visit them at Bradford. a few days ago I was with my Mother at Bath & resolved to walk over to tea. it is but six miles distant & the walk extremely beautiful. I got to Bradford & enquiring for Mr Perkins was directed two miles in the country to Freshford. my way lay by the side of the river. the hills around were well wooded the evening calm & pleasant — it was perf quite May weather, & as I was alone & beholding only what was beautiful & looking on to a pleasant interview — I had relapsed into my old mood of feeling benevolently & keenly for all things. a man was sitting on the grass tying up his bundle, & of him I askd if I was right for Freshford. he told me he was going there. does Mr Perkins live there? yes. he buried his wife last Tuesday. I was thunder struck. Good God — I saw her but a few weeks ago. aye Sir. ten days ago she was as well as you are — but she is in Freshford churchyard now!
Grosvenor I cannot describe to you what I felt. the man thought I had lost a relation. it was with great difficulty I could resolve in proceeding to see him — however I thought brought it a kind of duty & went. guess my delight on finding another Mr Perkins to whom I had been directed by mistake.
You do not know what I suffered under the impression of her death or the relief I felt at discovering the mistake. strange selfishness. this man too had lost a wife — a young wife but lately married — who perhaps he loved. & I — I rejoiced at his lost because it was not my friend
yet without this selfishness Man would be an apathir an animal below the ouran outang. it is mortifying to analize our noblest affections & find them all bottomed on selfishness. I hear of thousands killed in battle — I read of the young — the virtuous dying & think of them no more. why if my very dog died I should weep for him. if I lost you — I should feel a lasting affliction. if Edith were to die I should follow her.
I am dragged into a party of pleasure tomorrow for two days. an hours hanging would be luxury to me compared with these detestable schemes. party of pleasure! Johnson never wrote a better tale than that of the Ethiopian King.
Coleridges remembrances to you. he is applying the medicine of argument to my misanthropical system of indifference. twill not do. Timon