* Address:
Richard Heber Esqr/ Elliotts
Brewery
MS: Sterling Library, University of London,
tipped into S.L. I [Southey-1797], a presentation copy
of R. Southey, Poems, vol. 1, 4th edn
(London, 1801) and vol. 2 (Bristol and London, 1799).
Unpublished.
Dating note: This letter almost
certainly dates from 1802, in which case Southey has
misdated it, as 28 March fell on a Sunday that year.
Southey probably sent this to accompany books he had
borrowed from Heber’s library a couple of months earlier
(see Southey to Charles Danvers, 26 January 1802, Letter
652). The same letter to Danvers records Southey’s
annoyance at discovering a printing error in the large
copies of his Poems intended as
presentation volumes. The identical error is mentioned
in the letter to Heber, where it becomes a ‘curiosity’
that might be valued by a noted bibliophile. The gift of
a presentation copy of Southey’s poems additionally
suggests an early date in his friendship with Heber,
whom he had met during his Welsh tour of autumn 1801.
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