648. Robert Southey to Mary Barker, [8 January 1802]
*
Friday morning.
You will not wonder to hear that my Mother is
departed. she died on Tuesday − the funeral will be this
afternoon.
I shall in all likelyhood see you tomorrow.
Edith is
very unwell. [1] I am better
without − than within. the hateful business with Undertakers
&c. has perpetually disturbed me when I have been
employing myself.
These evils are like the cutting off ones
limb. the first emotion is joy for a release from acute
suffering − then comes the pain of the wound & the Sense
of the loss −
God bless you
Robert Southey.
Notes
* Address:
To/ Miss Barker/ 9 Buckingham Street/
Strand
Postmark: [partial] Two-Penny Post Bxxxxx St
Wxxx 2xxx Ja 1802xxx
MS: MS untraced; text is taken
from Robert Galloway Kirkpatrick, ‘The Letters of Robert
Southey to Mary Barker From 1800 to 1826’ (unpublished
PhD, Harvard, 1967), p. 23 [where it is misdated 9
January 1802]
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Edith’s
ill-health was possibly caused by pregnancy. Her first
child was born on 31 August 1802. BACK
