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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections From the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 30–32.
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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At Mr William Millers
I do not know whether you were ever at this place. between this & Dover there certainly is not a quieter spot. there are not half a dozen lodgings here, — & I am as compleatly secluded as I can wish. the price of every thing is nearly doubled since the commencement of the war — but as this advance has been general, provisions &c bear the same xxxxx proportion as usual to their price in town.
We were one week at Southampton. Edith was very unwell — & when she recovered we were confined by bad weather — so that I saw little of the place. enough however not to like <it>. the road from Winchester thither is remarkably beautiful; so much so as to make the New forest about Lyndhurst & Lymington appear comparatively uninteresting. here we are in a very different country. I have no map — but I conceive that these flats extend communicate with the low parts of Somersetshire & extend quite across the island to the Channel. You must not however suppose the scenery here unpleasant. it is of a kind that I have not been accustomed to — & will furnish several hints to a very valuable xxx <department> in my pocket book, where I set down such of the appearances of nature as may be introduced with good effect in poetry. the country has no undulation of hill & dale — but the hills rise immediately from the plain, dark & bold. here is one of the finest churches in the Kingdom; a pile of ruins stands close to the church yard, & a very clear & rapid little stream washes one of the walls. a very rude — odd — massy ruin on an artificial eminence xxxx into stands above the other — & the whole forms a xxxx fine groupe. we are two miles from the beach — a longer walk than I could wish.
We know no human being here. — I never see a newspaper — & never think of one. we arrived here on last Wednesday night, & I now feel myself settled.
On the Wednesday Tuesday evening before I left town I met Mountaguexx a hundred guineas worth of pleasure in doing so. you know I am a very awkward fellow at thanking any one — but I had knew most of his friends — & knew his character well, & so made a better hand than usual. I however am bridled & curbed & you have the reins.
With regard to what branch of the law I must follow — I would say something. You spoke of the common law as a nearer road to eminence I think; of chancery as equally advantageous. But is it not probable that in practising common law I may be called upon in criminal cases — to plead against the life of a man? if so — I should decidedly prefer chancery. I do not expect — I do not desire to be eminent. my only wish is to obtain enough to retire into the country — & that by means which I might look back upon without regret. But were I to be instrumental in bringing a murderer to the gallows — I should ever after feel that I had become a murderer myself.
I have not that quickness of mind necessary for cross examinations &c. no man is more easily disconcerted than myself. the right answer to an argument never occurs to me immediately. I always find it at last — but it comes too late. a blockhead who speaks boldly can baffle me. is not this of less consequence in chancery.
fare well. let me hear from you. are you M.P.?
God bless you.