This story of the Dog is so exceedingly painful that I have
not Englished it. Captain Gaspar de Villagra [1] was a wretched poet –
his whole work is minute narrative in the baldest language
without one glimpse of imagination. but this shocking story
he could not fail to relate pathetically. here the fault of
his general manner became a beauty – just as the rusty
weathercock must be sometimes with the wind & the
standing watch tells true once in the twelve hours.
Bedford tells me that Lambe is
going Consul to Lisbon. [2] I wonder that with this
in view he should return himself for Rye. [3]
My brother is
gone to Taunton to his
Uncle. this delays our projected walk &
therefore I think Mahomet had better come to the
Mountain. [4] there are some few things within
a walk, & others within a mornings drive that you have
not yet seen in this neighbourhood. in particular there a row of elms whose
trunks form the finest proof of Wartons opinion upon the
origin of Gothic architecture [5] – & the boiling well – of which one a little is described in
Thalaba [6] – & only little for the
place would not admit more.
The sum for Mrs
James [7] is already made up
by the 18 pounds which Elmsley received
of your brother Henry. [8] what else you have
collected will form a seasonable present sum – till her
annuity becomes due. it is distressing to see the poor
woman. at first she bore up wonderfully well – but now
appears daily to feel it more & more.
I am heartily glad you are again M.P. [9] it is such an admirable excuse for a short
letter –
God bless you –
R S.
Friday 30 July. 1802.
Notes
* Address: [deletion and readdress in
another hand] To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr M.P./ Wynnstay/
Wrexham <Worcester>
Stamped:
WREXHAM/ 202
Postmark: [partial] 122/ BRISTOL/ JUL
30
Endorsement: July 30/ 1802
MS: National
Library of Wales, MS
4811D
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá
(1555-1620) served as a captain in the 1598 expedition
that first colonised New Mexico. His epic
Historia de la Nueva México (1610),
Canto 19, lines 221-244, described how he was forced to
kill his dog for food. However, he then found he was
unable to eat the animal. BACK
[2] Thomas Davis Lamb was offered but
rejected the post of Consul, and with it the salary of
between £2000-2500 p.a. BACK
[3] On 6 July 1802, Lamb had
been elected as an MP for Rye, a town whose political
life his family dominated. BACK
[4] A
phrase first used by Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St
Albans (1561-1626; DNB), in ‘On
Boldness’, Essays (1625). Southey noted
the idea in Common-Place Book, ed. John
Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 20,
and intended to use it in the epic on Muhammad
(570-632), Prophet of Islam, that he planned to write
with Coleridge. BACK
[5] Thomas Warton (1728-1790;
DNB) whose influential essay on
gothic architecture was first published in his
Observations on the Fairy Queen of
Spenser, 2nd edn, 2 vols (London, 1762), II,
pp. 184-198. It is not clear what point Southey was
making. In so far as Warton ascribed an origin to Gothic
architecture, he looked to the influence of Arabic
styles. BACK
[6] The
Boiling-Well, a spring near Stoke’s
Croft, Bristol; described in Southey’s
Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book
11, lines 361-373. BACK
[7] Mrs James
(first name and dates unknown) had lost her four sons in
a shipwreck earlier in 1802. Southey and his friends
were attempting to raise money to invest in an annuity
for her. See Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn,
[c. 21 June 1802], Letter 683. BACK
[8] Wynn’s youngest brother, Henry Watkin
Williams Wynn (1783-1856). BACK
[9] Wynn had been
re-elected as an MP for Montgomeryshire on 13 July
1802. BACK
