Sunday. Aug. 26. 1798
My dear Grosvenor
Your letter this day found me in a remote Herefords part of Herefordshire, the village from
whence one part of my ancestry sprung, where they were some 2 generations back
the great people, where their old mansion house is now untenanted & in
ruins, & where I am visiting a stranger among strangers. [1]
Edith of course is with me, indeed
one motive of my rambling was the hope that frequent change of air & much
exercise might strengthen her. She is greatly recovered but far from being well.
We left home the 12th of this month for Hereford to be with
Thomas, & are now at
his Uncles [2] at Dilwyn. from hence we return on Tuesday to Hereford;
the end of the week we go to Abberley, to the brother in law of poor Seward, [3] & our absence from home will not in all
exceed a month.
I am very – very – desirous of seeing Leopold Berchtold. [4] would he were to remain till November in
town. I shall then come up to keep term – but before – a plague upon money say
I! I would come up on purpose if it were not for the expence. Will you send me
his book – because my Letters are in the press again – & I should wish to
mention it there. [5] & Grosvenor pray borrow for
me Carlisles account of the
Surgical College at Madrid which I once analized for him, as I want to give some
account of it in an appendix [6] & the
sketch I then took is imperfect. if you will send these books together to Cottles you will oblige me – & I pray
you be not more dilatory than convenience requires.
I have no excuses to offer for silence – at least none worth
offering. riding & walking are idle employments – & when I am at home
you know not how much I have to do. My mind is never vacant – I turn from one
employment to another – & change is to be me
as rest. you know I am now a housekeeper, & as my additional charge have not
yet received any additional resources, my industry is all in requisition. in
this however my Uncle will
assist me when he can, & in the mean time it is well that I can do without
it. I review a great deal – & am surprized to find the months come round so
fast. besides this I have another regular employment which kills two birds with
one stone & which I will one day explain to you, & then the Law you know
– damn the Law. however I have lately found a second reason for reading a Law
book – & shall sit at it hungrily.
At present Grosvenor I hunger & thirst to be in your
Library [7] – & hope to satiate my appetite there
in November. do you know that I must keep three half weeks in the terms to
come?
I write to you with little comfort out of a most villainous
ink-stand. I have never seen Roscoes lines [8] – & do not expect
much from him. he is an accomplished man & a good
man, but one whose reputation will not last because it is not deserved. his book
is a weak book. [9]
Tenhoves [10] is worth a thousand
such.
My Vision [11] is not yet fit for the press. it will however
soon be there & I shall add other pieces enough to make up a second volume.
I have some good ballads ready & my English Eclogues will be among my best
things. [12]
Grosvenor you have an ugly great sheet half filld – I wish it
were smaller or fuller. There is a tide in the feelings of man, which taken at
the flood leads on to letter writing [13] – now Grosvenor it was low water before I could get paper
& ink, & my pen & ink are miserably uncomfortable. I cannot mend the
one – so
God bless you.
yrs truly
Robert Southey
Ediths love. direct to Cottles. I shall soon return.
Notes* Address: To/
Grosvenor Ch. Bedford Esqr/ Exchequer/ London/
Single
Stamped: HEREFORD
Postmark: G/ AU/ 30 /98
Endorsement: 26
August 1798
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 23
Previously
published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert
Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp.
174–176. BACK [1] Southey’s maternal relations, the Tylers,
originated from Dilwyn, Herefordshire; see Charles John Robinson, The
Mansions of Herefordshire and Their Memories (London, 1873), p.
93. BACK [2] Probably a maternal uncle of
William Bowyer
Thomas. A Francis Bowyer Esq. of Dilwyn was recorded in An
Alphabetical List of the Poll for the County of Hereford, Taken at
Widemarsh, before Abraham Whittaker Esquire, Sheriff (Hereford,
1796), p. 38. BACK [3] Francis Severn
(1751–1828), Rector of Kyre and Abberley, Worcestershire, was married to a
sister of Edmund Seward. BACK [4] Leopold, Graf von Berchtold (1759–1809),
Austrian philanthropist. BACK [5]
Letters Written
During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal, 2nd edn
(Bristol, 1799), pp. 290–295, mentions three of Berchtold’s books, but not
the gift Southey probably received, Berchtold’s Nachtrict von dem im
St Antons-Spitale in Smirna mit dem allerbesten Erfolg gebrauchten
einfachen Mittel (1797). BACK [6] Published as
‘Account of the Royal College of Surgery at Madrid’, Letters Written
During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal, 2nd edn
(Bristol, 1799), pp. 468–483. Southey was probably translating from a
Spanish original in the possession of Anthony Carlisle. BACK [7] Grosvenor Bedford’s father
had a personal collection of books, which Southey had made use of since his
schooldays at Westminster. BACK [8] Probably William
Roscoe, Address Spoken by Mr. Holman, at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool
on the Night Appropriated for the Benefit of the Children of the Late
Mr. Palmer (1798). The highly-regarded and popular actor John
Palmer (1742?–1798; DNB) had died on 2 August, leaving
several children. The Liverpool benefit was followed by similar events at
the Haymarket and Drury Lane Theatres, London. BACK [9] William Roscoe,
The Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici (1795). BACK [10] Nicolas Tenhove (dates
unknown), Dutch antiquarian. An English translation of his Memoirs of
the House of Medici appeared in 1797. BACK [11] ‘The Vision of
the Maid of Orleans’, published in Poems, 2 vols (Bristol,
1799), II, pp.[1]–69. BACK [12]
Poems (1799)
included six ballads and six ‘English Eclogues’. BACK [13] A
paraphrase of Julius Caesar, Act 4, scene 3, lines
218–220. BACK |
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