The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 1: 1791-1797 A Romantic Circles Electronic Edition Southey, Robert, 1774-1843 Lynda Pratt Romantic Circles General Editor, Neil Fraistat General Editor, Steven E. Jones General Editor, Carl Stahmer Technical Editor Laura Mandell 2009-03-15 rce233 letterEEd.26.233 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD March 15, 2009

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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 132–134.

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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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.

Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.

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233. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 11 July [1797] Address: C W Williams Wynn Esqr/ 5 Stone Buildings/ Lincolns Inn/ London./ Single Stamped: RINGWOODPostmark: AJY/ 12/ 97 Watermark: Crest/ G REndorsement: 11 July 97MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811DPreviously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 132–134. 11th. July.
Burton near Ringwood.
My dear Wynn

I have an anecdote of KosciuskosThe Polish patriot Thaddeus Kosciusko (1746–1817), who visited Bristol on 13 June 1797 on his way to America. He was greeted by local dignitaries and his departure from the port was a great public event. reception at Bristol which will amuse & please you. an old confectioner by name Burge Matthews’s New Bristol directory, for the year, 1793–4 (Bristol, [1793]), p. 19, lists four confectioners called Burge. was determined to make him some present, & he resolved to make him <it should be> a cake of the very best materials. he did this himself, inscribed it in coloured carroways “to the gallant Kosciusko, & set off with this, as much as he could carry, to the American Consuls where he was. his determined perseverance conquerd the servants refusal, & up he went with his cake following the servant & repeating his set speech. But when he saw Kosciusko lying on a couch — so emaciated — so pale — the poor fellow burst into tears, put down his cake, & ran out of the room without speaking a word.

I have this minute received a cargo from Lisbon among in which are 25 views taken by my Uncle on our road. some of these I must have engraved for a second edition, & very beautiful they will be.

I told you my brothers adventures, but at that time did not know the whole of the matter. his capture probably saved his life. for the mast was gone & every pump at work in the vessel which his CaptainSir Robert Barlow (1757–1843; DNB). ordered him to carry into port, at the time when he was sent on board it, & they expected to founder when the privateer took them. now Captain Barlow wrote word to my Mother that the ship was quite new & sound! — but the French captain who behaved so kindly to Tom, is now himself a prisoner at Plymouth; he wrote to my brother begging him if he could to get him exchanged or enlarged upon parole; this letter came to me; & I have procured some letters to Plymouth people to do what they can for this man who deserves every return from me. Southey worked — successfully — to gain the release of Captain Boutet (first name and dates unknown).

This business of poor Chattertons sisterThomas Chatterton’s (1752–1770; DNB) sister, Mary Newton (1749–1804; DNB). is in a fair train — & I hope, with little trouble, to make the rest of her days comfortable. did I tell you Herbert Crofts villainy?Herbert Croft, 5th Baronet (1751–1816; DNB), writer and lexicographer. Southey and Cottle both disapproved of his exploitation of manuscripts obtained from members of Thomas Chatterton’s family. he has not yet answered Cottles letter; Joseph Cottle had written to Croft, informing him if he did not financially recompense Chatterton’s sister, Mrs Newton, his misconduct would be exposed. See Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (London, 1847), p. 145. Cottle has informed him that unless he makes a satisfactory reply by a certain day, the whole business shall be made public; & a blacker scene of treachery was never yet laid open.

You cannot conceive how my happiness is increased by being in the co[MS obscured] it is a new existence. every old enjoyment is increased & [MS obscured] find a thousand new ones. Edith is much better than when we left town. here is fine pickling & I take advantage of it. there is but one plague here (bating the forest flies which I do not feel because I never ride) & that is the old Lady StrathmoreMary Eleanor Bowes (1749–1800; DNB), heiress, botanist and author of a five act play, The Siege of Jerusalem (1769). Her first husband was John Lyon (1737–1776), 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, her second the fortune-hunter Andrew Robinson Stoney (1747–1810). In 1789 her abusive marriage to Stoney ended in an acrimonious and scandalous divorce. who annoys me with invitations. a very good-for-nothing old woman with a toothless tone half unintelligible.

Lloyds poems Charles Lloyd (1775–1839; DNB), Poems on the Death of Priscilla Farmer (1796). are published now with Coleridges & Lambs in one volume, Poems, by S. T. Coleridge, Second Edition. To Which are Now Added Poems by Charles Lamb, and Charles Lloyd (1797). & that awkward folio now makes a few pocket-sized pages.

God bless you. When you come down to be chaired Bedford & I will get a sedan for you & eke out out constituents so that you may have enough to carry you. we shall find out the place by getting the exact latitude & steering by the compass.

however I can have a proof sheet twice a week, when Joan of Arc is printing, enclosed to you. xxxx tis an ill wind &c.

You ought to have been Sancho & then Dapple might have gone in characterIn Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616), Don Quixote (1605–1615), Dapple is the name of Sancho Panza’s ass. It was also the nickname of Grosvenor Charles Bedford. — I have a large paper copy printing for you of the [MS obscured] would it be civil to send RichardsProbably Sir Richard Richards (1752–1823; DNB), an eminent lawyer in Chancery. one? or is it a civility better left alone?

yrs affectionately Robert Southey