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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Not previously published.
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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It is seldom Bedford that I have felt any thing like reluctance in writing to you,
nor indeed ought I to feel it now. your invitation kind & attractive as
it is, cannot be accepted by me at the time you mention. on
the 18th of January I left home & since that period have not seen any
one of my own family. it is now necessary to give some time to them &
this it is my duty to do. as for inclination I must learn on many occasions to
bridle it. home is far from being to me the comfortable retreat you enjoy. I
have been so long inured to misery there that the idea of it when it comes
across happier scenes clouds them. keen as my relish is for the pleasures of
domestic life I have experienced them but little — perhaps I never may more but
my present disposition is not the most chearful & I will hope better
scenes in store. some time this year however Bedford I will pleasure
myself by visiting you, as I think of missing Michaelmas term & will
then if you permit me make Brixton in my
road to Rye. after saying so much
you will not attempt to press me farther & pain me to refuse. we shall
meet at the Installation. I have seldom looked to any period with greater
pleasure it is more than twelvemonths since we have seen each other & in
despite of the various transactions which have since passed during that period I do not fancy myself altered in any
great respect. I am as visionary & childish, or indeed more so, than
ever as noisy as wild & sometimes as melancholy. you Bedford are peculiarly
fortunate in escaping the four years purgatory of an University. to live so many
months without seeing one female being, or rather without speaking to one —
totally confined to the intercourse of men or boys your own age, is miserable.
here we have none of that mixed intercourse which polishes down our rough edges
& renders us human. if the consequences of this defect can be good I
much wondering am much mistaken — the old fellows vegitate among their books —
the undergraduates take to the bottle for resourse, or the “mercenary retailers
of iniquity”
strange are the vicissitudes which mortal experiences. I promised you an ode to sleep instead of the long lazy lines & sombrous epithets see what this morning produced whilst I waited in minutary expectation of the clocks warning sound.
Where ignorance is bliss — tis folly to be wise.
Bedford I detest Logic.
my ideas please me very well. they err perhaps on the right side by supposing
humanity more perfect than it is. but if wisdom consists in being convinced of
the depravity of human Nature I must pray Nature to continue me in my present
state of folly.
if Collins could receive your brother on Friday as well I can you I would request you to come as soon as possible but he cannot disengage himself from business till the Tuesday following. on that day then we hope to see our Brixton friends & believe me Bedford I wish to say soon after, Brixton too. but I have spoken at large in the begining of my letter & you will not press me farther. since I began my Uncle is arrived from Lisbon so you see another bar to my visiting you. you do not know how unpleasantly I feel or how I force my own inclinations in refusing what you so kindly & so strongly request.
as to Rough it was not with any idea of pressing you to engage in his schemes that I mentioned it. he requested me to inform you & in compliance I wrote. but Rough is not a man upon whom either you or I can place any dependance. he is all warmth & kindness when you see him but turn your back & you are forgotten. for myself I would not wish again to attempt as yet. twelve months hence or as much later as you please & I shall be ready without fear to venture upon the public. once a fortnight I write an essay but this rule has been but lately adopted & when I have this letter I shall copy only the third produced in obedience to it. it is upon [MS obscured] & pleases me much, the subject is so copious that it will fill another paper. have you seen my ode upon the same? as a companion to Poetry which I believe you have with you.
I have unfortunately forgotten your caution of leaving space for the wafer. the word most likely to be obliterated is Romance.
do not bring a horse with you. it will be expensive troublesome
& useless. we have planned many delightful days. one to Blenheim one to
Godstow — to Abingdon &c &c. one evening to drink tea with Mr Thorp who has
invited me when you come. but I shall receive no greater pleasure than from
seeing you once more. it is a long while since we met. Lamb will be with his Majesty at the Installation. Sir
Watkin herds with his brother.
I have <seen> your letter relative to Strachey. against him I feel no
resentment & must only lament that I was too sincerely his friend ever
to think of him without regret. reconciliation I should be far from opposing,
but I doubt whether it would be worth the trouble. George can be firm in a case like
this & perhaps he never would esteem me as he once did. I am not
conscious of having acted improperly & can almost say with Job ‘oh that
my words were written in a book’
will you inform your father & mother how much I feel obliged by their invitation & how much I regret the total impossibility of accepting it. I know you will not press me farther. but rest assured that the first moment I find it in my power I will please myself by visiting you.
hope the Dr. is well. he will not find my calves head drest. I am
still the boy