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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. 295–297 [in part; where it is dated 21 November 1796].
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.
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When do I come to London? a plain question. I cannot tell — is as plain an answer. my books wil be out before Xmas. & I shall then have no further business in Bristol. yet Bedford this is not saying when I shall leave it — the best answer is — as soon as I can — & the sooner the better. I want to be there. I want to feel myself settled — & God knows when that will be. for the settlement of a lodging is but a comfortless one. to compleat comfort a house to oneself is necessary for I do not like living in the same den with the beast.
however I expect to be as comfortable as it is possible to be in that cursed city — “that huge & hateful sepulchre of Men”
I already feel intimate with Carlisle. but I am a very snail in company Grosvenor & pop into my shell whenever I am approachd or roll myself up like a hedge hog in my rough outside.
it is strange but I never approached London without feeling my heart sink within me. an unconquerable heaviness oppresses me in its atmosphere — & all its associated ideas — are painful. with a little house in the country & a bare independance how much more useful should I be — & how much more happy! it is not talking nonsense when I say that the London air is as bad for the mind as for the body. for the mind is a cameleon that receives its colours from surrounding xxx objects. in the country every thing is good. every thing in Nature is beautiful — the benevolence of Deity is every where presented to the eye, & the heart participates in the tranquillity of the scene. in the town my soul is continually <disgusted> by the vices & follies & consequent miseries of mankind.
my future studies too — now I never read a book without learning something — & never write a line of poetry without cultivating some feeling of benevolence & honesty. but the law — a damned jargon — a quibbling collection of voluminous nonsense — but this I must wade thro — aye & I will wade thro — & when I shall have got enough to live in the country you & I will make my first Xmas fire of all my law books. oh Grosvenor what a blessed bonfire! the Devil uses the Statutes at large for fuel when he gives an Attorney his house-warming.
Your boy is a miracle & his sister — what can be done for her? — Zounds Grosvenor is it not a pity that the boy cannot exx marry her? for I am woefully afraid any cross breed will be a degenerate one! What is become of your book?
my Triumph of Woman is manufacturd into a tolerable poem. my Hymn to the Penates will be the best of my minor pieces. the B. B. Eclogues may possibly become popular.
Read St Pierre
Farewell Grosvenor. when in London I must see you every day & therefore — my home must be on the way to Brixton: if possible within the compass of an evenings walk to tea.
I want to get a Tragedy out. — to furnish a house with its profits, is this a practicable scheme allowing the merit of the Drama??? or would a good novel succeed better?
heigh ho! Ways & Means! my respects to “all your good family.” particularly remember me to Harry. if you could spare one week — you might run down to Bristol — but this I must not hope.