705. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [13 August 1802] ⁠* 

Friday night.

To night I have been overhauling old papers – a business which to me is truly detestable – old recollections rise as if it were a rehearsal of Doomsday. old mirth that makes one unhappy – & letters from those who are dead! – a whole heap are already piled for the candle – another I have thrown aside as precious materials for

The Whole Works &c

of the late

Robert Southey! –

a publication which I hope may be long delayed – but such a heap I shall lay by. I have received too many odd letters to be all wasted.

You see what I send you. among the burnanda are a theme which Vincent  [1]  returned with a long row for abusing Burke [2]  in it – & a fragment of the ribband about which Morrell [3]  & Joe Phillimore quarrelled & fought & made a rebellion, eleven years ago. [4]  so long is it since I was a school boy –

Some letters have made me more than ordinarily serious. the two which I received from Lisbon on my being rejected at Ch. Church – & afterward on abandoning Oxford. [5]  ten years have materially altered me. the flavour of the liquor is the same – & I believe it is still sound – but it has ceased to froth & to sparkle. – what what avails it to discover where <& how> you lost your way upon a road that is never more to be travelled? –

Howbeit there is a long account to balance the loss. in no other circumstances should I have possessed the powers & knowledge which I now feel. – there they lie – & I wish my Executor – that is the Gentleman whoever he be that will one day execute me biographically – or rather necrologically dissect me – had the trouble of picking them up & arranging them.

There are more relics of poor Bunbury – for my own <part> I hate these memorials & had almost as lief meet the ghost of a dead friend as these bodily & tangible remembrancers. there are some savages who bury with the dead all his arms & cloathes – I am somewhat of their way of feeling only burning would be better — & a high wind for the ashes.

God bless you Wynn –

I wrote this morning to Wrexham before your letter came & inclosed the Dog story. [6]