My dear Wynn
I expected no letters on a Monday, & therefore did not look
for any yesterday — but yours came from Maidenhead when a London one would not
have come — & I have now only time to acknowledge it. The Ring [1] shall come
tomorrow — you must expect nothing from it — one stanza may cause a smile —
& that is all.
have you forgotten the subject I once mentioned to you for a
ballad without a ghost? — the castle inhabited only by the maniac & young
woman? [2]
I have thought of writing to you as a Member of Parliament [3]
upon the subject of the moral mxxx property left
to charitable uses & misapplied. I am very glad you did not speak upon the
Slave Trade [4] — & yet I should <not> like you always to swim
silently with the stream. it appears to me that on this subject much might be
done — & the condition of the poor very greatly amended by only restoring to
them what is pilfered.
God bless you.
yrs affectionately
R Southey.
Tuesday.
Notes
* Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn
Esqr/ Dropmore Hill/ Maidenhead
Stamped: BRISTOL
Endorsement: April 10 1798
MS: National Library of Wales, MS
4811D
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Southey’s poem had appeared in the
Morning Post, 22 February 1798, under the signature
‘Walter’ (probably a version of ‘Wat Tyler’, a favourite pseudonym of
Southey’s). The poem was later renamed ‘King Charlemain’. BACK
[2] Southey noted this idea in his
Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series
(London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 95–96, but he did not turn it into a
poem. BACK
[3] Wynn had been elected as one of the
Members of Parliament for the pocket borough of Old Sarum in 1797. BACK
[4] On 3 April 1798 the House of
Commons had rejected by 87 votes to 83 a motion to give William Wilberforce
(1759–1833; DNB) leave to introduce a bill abolishing the
slave trade. BACK
