My dear Wynn
If I had not letters written by you of a late
date & a frank so late as the 20th
the newspapers would have indeed alarmed me. I have seen
your name in the Sun, Star & Courier as being on board
the Proserpine. [1] − this is a dreadful circumstance. I also
have apprehensions of the same kind for a brother of
Edith. lately wrecked on the Spanish coast, &
about to return from Porto by way of Dublin. weeks are
elapsed since he ought to have been here, & from the
continued winds, & the accounts of wrecks innumerable in
the Irish Channel, I have <reason for> very serious
fears.
I could not help being startled at seeing
your name. the probability of your going had before occurred
to me, & then I began to think of all the possibilities
that you might <have> left London at the latest
period. however it is palpably impossible, & yet I shall
be glad to see your handwriting.
You ask me about law. in Coke &
Blackstone [2]
every passage is familiar to my eyes, to my mind they are
not familiar because I have not the opportunity of applying
them. for any thing but a Lawyer, my professional knowledge
would I believe be great, & as a part of general
information I should neither wish or want more. but this is
not Lawyers enough. since
the weather has broke I am sensibly better, but very
different indeed from what I was twelve months ago in bodily
strength. at present no person can be more unequal to any
kind of application.
I expect to send you my book [3] tomorrow. it appears to me very odd that
people should think me careless of correction after what has
been done to Joan of Arc – [4]
God bless you –
yrs affectionately
R Southey.
Feby. 25. 99.
Have you seen the Inscription for an Oak – & the Wig
of the Scarecrow? [5] there is a story
in Plutarchs Morals of Pausanias which will make a fine
ballad. [6]
Notes
* Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr/ 5. Stone Buildings/ Lincolns Inn/
London
Postmarks: BRISTOL/ FEB 25 99; FE/ 26/
99
Endorsements: Feb. 25 1799; Mr. Wynn
MS: National Library of Wales, MS
4811D
Unpublished. BACK
[1] The
frigate Proserpine had been wrecked
off Heligoland on 31 January 1799. Although the London
newspapers had reported the presence of a Mr Williams
Wynn on board, Southey had confused his friend with his
older brother, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn (1772–1840;
DNB). The passengers had also
included Wynn’s uncle, Thomas Grenville (1755–1846). For
an account of the sufferings of the passengers and crew
see A Narrative of the Loss of His Majesty’s Ship
the Proserpine, James Wallace, Esq. Captain.
Compiled by John Wright, First Lieutenant
(1799). BACK
[2] Edward
Coke (1552–1643; DNB), author of the
four-part Institutes of the Laws of
England (1628–1644); and William Blackstone
(1723–1780; DNB), Commentaries on
the Laws of England (1765–1769). BACK
[3] Either Poems
(1799) or Letters Written During a Short
Residence in Spain and Portugal
(1799). BACK
[4]
Joan of Arc had been
heavily revised for the second edition of
1798. BACK
[5] Southey was being slightly premature: ‘Musings On
the Wig of a Scarecrow’ and ‘Inscription Under an
Oak’ were published anonymously in the
Morning Post on 21 and 27
February 1799, respectively. BACK
[6] Plutarch (AD 46–120), Greek historian; Pausanias
(d. 471 BC), a Spartan general haunted by the ghost
of a young woman he had murdered. For Southey’s
planned poem, see Common-Place Book,
ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850),
IV, p. 163. BACK
