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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 20–23 [in part; verse not reproduced]; Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, p. 182 [in part; where it is dated 6 May 1793].
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 you shall not call our enterprize unfortunate need I again repeat that to me <it> appears in a light very very different? Christ Church would not have suited me — I should have been a grave owl amongst a set of chattering jays — here at Balliol I am as happy as — I ever can be at Oxford — the manners of an University the discipline the foundation & the superstructure are to me equally disgreable — if however Happiness is not to be found here ready made I must make what I do not find — one proof of my sincerity here is my present employment. I have you before my minds eye & as for colleges doctors proctors & bishops they are like Shakespears fools to set off the grand character.
C Collins has your letter at present so Memory must supply an answer. the letter which you call long & which indeed was upon large paper I received upon return. what you humbly name a mere hypothesis I am fully convinced of & it gives me no small pleasure to reflect that whilst you are in the current of vice & luxury & I am in the pool of illiberality & stupidity we can both think the same & exerting the same freedom of mind perhaps act the same. upon this subject I could say much but you must essay it & in the mean time o votary of Indolence take an ode to Exercise written after a walk of twenty eight miles at Chipping Norton
———————————————
*Perhaps these lines had not been written if I had thought of sending you the ode
at the time it was composed, believe me I had none of the Kellys
————————
You have it Bedford as it
came from the mint of the brain with all the fantastic ornaments of the founder.
the young Egalite’s
What you say of Jack the second
We have served young Wynn worse then ever his friend Martin was used returning from Abingdon by water (we were five in all) contrary to the will & convenience of all he would bathe. he did so. we hid his cloaths run the boat on shore & ran thro the wood. Compassion (better late than never) at last touchd us & we returnd. I never was so angry with myself as upon reflection the moment I beheld his fresco form. now I can laugh he was walking with the game keeper in [MS obscured] birthday suit shivering with an oil skin cap upon his head. we voted him Carde[MS torn] Wynn had too much good humour to be offended & too good a constitution to be injured. the day was very pleasant & this circumstance will now enhance the pleasure of recollection. he will learn the use of cloaths & I shall learn consideration
I would advise you to walk to the Installation as you will find a
horse of no use here. Wynn will if
you wish inquire concerning his innstallation. but for once use the legs which
God gave you with Aristocratic principles all your thoughts & actions
are from Democratic motives & I am far more proud of this similarity
than if system or enthusiasm taught us both to bellow God save the King whilst
Priestleys house was on fire
Mr. Thorp Junr. enquired after you & all your family
last night. I made use of your name from a motive perhaps not quite right. I
wanted some conversation with the man who thro his microscope from the top of
the house can distinguish the basilisk in Blenheim Park.s. 6d for our dinner eat 6d worth of fruit
& in general get drunk! drunkeness is not my foible & I have a
set of sober friends few enough to put Decency to the blush good enough to
support her cause. Wynn with whom
I spent yesterday absolutely accuses me of want of Ambition the accusation gave
me great pleasure. he wants me to wish distinction & to seek it — I want
it not — I wish it not. the abilities which Nature gave me which Fashion has not
cramped & which Vanity often magnifies are never neglected — I will
cultivate them with diligence but only for my friends — if I can amuse &
please them — if I can bring myself sometimes to their Remembrance I have
attained the ne plus ultra of my ambition. Prebendaries Deaneries &
Bishopricks may be hunted by the fools & rogues in black who wish them.
I shall feel prouder in the coarse country jacket digging in my own garden than
if tricked out with lawn sleeves or the purple tiara. & more like a
minister of Christ when easing the woes of Poverty & smoothing the bed
of Death than if bellowing blasphemy on the 30th of
January,