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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. 258–261 [in part, and giving the appearance of being two separate letters: 30 November 1795 and undated].
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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Bedford our Summons arrived this morning. the vessel goes Tuesday & when you receive this, I shall be casting up my accounts with the fishes.
Grosvenor you have my Will. if the ship founders or any other chance gives me sends me to supper — all my papers are yours. they are with my Mother part, & part with Edith. the relic-worship is founded upon human feelings & you will value them. there is little danger of accidents, but there can be no harm in these few lines. All my letters are at your disposal — but it would be right to return your brothers. & if I be drowned — do not you be surprized if I should pay you a visit. for if permitted, & if it can be done without terrifying or any ways injuring you I certainly will do it.
But I shall visit you in propria personâ in the summer.
Would you had been with me the 14th.
you will get a letter from Madrid. write you to Lisbon. I expect to find letters there, & the expectation will form the pleasantest thoughts I shall experience on my journey.
I should like to find your Musæusr Cottles High Street Bristol — he will convey it to her. & I believe next to receiving any thing from me, something for me & from my friend will be the most agreable occurrence during my absence. I give you this direction as it will be sure to reach her. Edith will be as a parlour boarder with the Miss Cottles (his sisters) two women of elegant & accomplishd manners. the eldest lived as governess in Ld Derbysxxx a little while — & you will have some opinion of them when I say, that they make even bigotry amiable. they are very religious, & the eldest (who is but t twenty three) wished me to read good books — the advice came from the heart — she thinks very highly of me, but fancies me irreligious because I frequent no place of worship & indulge speculations beyond reason.
God bless & prosper God bless & prosper you — & grant I may find you as happy on my arrival, as I hope & expect to be.
Well Grosvenor. here I am waiting only for a wind. your letter arrived a few hours before me. that to Bath came <to> Nanswhyden.
I have seen Lord Butes Chaplain, Mr Maber who goes to Madrid with us. a useful rather than an agreable companion. my heart is sick at the thought of being so long without a friend. who is it says “thou knowest not
How sharper than a serpents tooth it is
To have a faithless friend —
I recollect as I write that I am altering Lear. this reflection however springs from your [MS torn] my own feelings. I did take a viper to my bosom [MS torn] to injure me was like liking the file.
thank you for your verses. a few alterations would make it an excellent ode. Edith you will see & know & love. but her virtues are of the domestic order & you will love her in proportion as you know her. I hate your daffidowndilly women — aye & men too. the violet is ungaudy in its appearance, tho a sweeter flower perfumes not the evening gale —. tis equally her wish to see you. oh Grosvenor — when I think of our winter evenings that will arrive — & then look at myself arrayed for a voyage in an inn parlour! whilst to xxx xx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx dry my eye I scarcely know whether the tear that starts into my eye proceeds from anticipated pleasure or present melancholy.
I am never comfortable at an inn. boughten hospitality are two ill-connected ideas. — Grosvenor I half shudder to think that a plank only will divide the husband of Edith from the unfathomed ocean! & did I believe its efficacy could burn a hecatomb to Neptune
Robert Southey.