656. Robert Southey to William Taylor,
6 February 1802
*
My dear Friend
I did not till yesterday receive your note.
at an hour too late to answer it. I have been confined to
the house, therefore not able to look for my letters, &
Corry being
himself unwell, neglected to send them.
A letter which I wrote this day week to Harry
explained my delay in setting off for Norwich. Edith is
somewhat amended – but very little, & very slowly.
Unless she relapse – & unless I also relapse – for I
have been very unwell myself – I shall hope to see you in the course of the
following week. – Your letter is a very kind one. almost I
could find fault with some part of it for its too much
civility.
John May sends by me
half a pound of cigars, & two glass pipes of the last
fashion. they tempt me to learn to smoke.
Perhaps you knows not the news of Burnett. He had
been only a week with Lord Stanhope when his two pupils
eloped, enticed away by an elder sister, who avows what she
has done, & affirms that Lord S.s groom who was the
go-between, is rewarded with a place under government. [1] the
father is severely afflicted – I think more so than becomes
a philosopher. he appears attached to Burnett – has
taken him aside & said that his situation must not be at
an end. he hopes to recover the youngest boy – & if not
– “I hope said he Mr B. it will be a very
long time before you leave me. I never make promises – but
rather like to perform.” George was in
town upon this business.
Our news is that the King wishes obstinately
to retire from all public business, & that this has been
the cause of the frequent adjournments. [2] Two Cornish men
are in town to procure a Patent for a carriage, driven by
steam, as it succeeds in Cornwall, [3] Bonaparte may bespeak
some for his next march across the Alps. [4]
Davy & Sir
Joseph Banks between them have found out that the Terra
Japanica is pure tannine. [5] I fear this will not lessen the price of
shoe leather tho it must make the fortune of the first
tanners who profit by it.
I will put Madoc in my trunk – that you may
see it in its crude state & advise me about the bear
before I lick him into shape. [6] History
employs most of my time & that very delightfully. [7] the easy
idleness of research suits me well. silk-worm like I prefer
eating to spinning.
Godwin is
married – to a Widow with one child. [8] what I
hear of her does not much please me – nor am I disposed to
be pleased with a second Mrs
Godwin. [9] he is about the History
of the Life & Times of Geoffrey Chaucer, for
Phillips. [10] a great
metaphysical book is in the
conceived & about to be born. Thomas
Wedgewood the Jupiter whose brain is parturient,
Mackintosh [11] the Man midwife – a
preface with <on> the
history of metaphysical opinions promised by Coleridge. this will perhaps prove an abortion,
& be bottled up among other rarities in the Moon. [12] it has however proceeded so far as to
disturb the spiders, whose hereditary claim to Thomas
Aquinas [13] & Duns Scotus [14] had not been
disputed for many a year before. Time & Space are the
main subjects of speculation. I am afraid the book will add
nothing to what I have already learnt from the clocks &
the mile stones.
God bless you –
yrs thankfully & truly
Robert Southey.
Saturday. Feb y
6. 1802.
35. Strand.
Harry
will be sorry to hear that Tom is gone to
the West Indies. for the chance of Peace this is
somewhat hard.
Notes* Address: To/
Mr Wm Taylor
Junr/ Surry Street./ Norwich./
Single
Stamped: 449 Strand
Postmark: AFE/ 6/
1802
MS: Huntington Library, HM 4833
Previously
published: J. W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the
Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of
Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), I, pp.
397-399. BACK [1] Burnett had been
employed as tutor to Charles Stanhope (1785-1809) and
James Stanhope (1788-1825), younger sons of the
controversial politician and inventor Charles
(‘Citizen’) Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753-1816;
DNB). The boys’ flight from their
father’s house was described in a letter from Charles
Lamb to John Rickman, [?1 February 1802], E.W. Marrs Jr
(ed.), The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb,
1796-1817, 3 vols (Ithaca, NY and London,
1975-1978), II, pp. 49-50. The key figure in organising
their escape was Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839;
DNB), their eldest sister and later,
an intrepid traveller in the Near East. BACK [2] George III (1738-1820; King
of Great Britain and Ireland 1760-1820;
DNB) had been less publicly visible
in 1801 because of a recurrence of the illness that had
incapacitated him in 1788-1789. BACK [3] Richard Trevithick (1771-1833;
DNB) and Andrew Vivian (1759-1842)
secured a patent for their steam locomotive on 24 March
1802. The locomotive had been trialled in Camborne,
Cornwall, in December 1801. BACK [4] Napoleon Bonaparte
(1769-1821; First Consul 1799-1804; Emperor of the
French 1804-1814) had led his army across the Alps in
May 1800. BACK [5] Davy had conducted experiments to confirm
the view of Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820;
DNB) that Terra Japonica, or Catechu,
an extract obtained from mimosa wood, was rich in tannin
and could therefore be used in the process of tanning
leather. As Terra Japonica was cheaper than oak bark,
the substance usually employed, its widespread use might
reduce the price of leather goods. Davy publicised his
discovery in ‘An Account of some Experiments and
Observations on the Constituent Parts of Certain
Astringent Vegetables; and On Their Operation in
Tanning’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society of London, 93 (1803),
233-273. BACK [6] Southey had completed a fifteen-book
version of Madoc in 1799, and was now
considering revising it for publication. BACK [7] Southey was working on
his projected ‘History of Portugal’. BACK [8] Godwin had married Mary Jane Clairmont
(1768-1841; DNB) on 21 December 1801.
Although she had two children and claimed to be a widow,
it was unlikely she had ever been married. BACK [9] Southey
was not ‘disposed to be pleased’ with the second Mrs
Godwin because he had been a great admirer of the first,
Mary
Wollstonecraft. BACK [10] Godwin’s four-volume Life of Geoffrey
Chaucer was published in 1804 by Richard
Phillips (1760-1840; DNB). BACK [11] The
political writer Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832;
DNB). BACK [12] Southey was proved
right, the project did not materialise; see Coleridge to
Thomas Poole, 19 February 1802, E. L. Griggs (ed.),
Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, 6 vols (Oxford, 1956-1971), II,
p. 787. BACK [13] Thomas
Aquinas (c. 1225–1274), Italian philosopher and
Dominican friar. BACK [14] Duns Scotus (c. 1265–1308),
Franciscan friar and theologian. BACK |
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