The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 2: 1798-1803 A Romantic Circles Electronic Edition Southey, Robert, 1774-1843 Lynda Pratt Romantic Circles General Editor, Neil Fraistat General Editor, Steven E. Jones Technical Editor Laura Mandell 2011-08-15 rce344 letterEEd.26.335 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 23. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 58–59 [in part].

These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer

For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.

A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.

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 NINES categories for Genre and Material Form at http://www.performantsoftware.com/nines_wiki/index.php/Submitting_RDF#.3Cnines:genre.3E on 2009-02-26 Architecture Artifacts Bibliography Collection Criticism Letters Drama Life Writing Politics Folklore Ephemera Fiction History Leisure Manuscript Reference Works Humor Education Music nonfiction Paratext Perodical Philosphy Photograph Citation Family Life Poetry Religion Review Visual Art Translation Travel Book History Law Southey Letters: Biographies Southey Letters: Places Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming after latest corrections Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming Averill Buchanan corrections from proofing Averill Buchanan Part II added
335. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 20 July 1798 Address: To/ Grosvenor Charles Bedford Esqr/ Exchequer/ London./ SingleStamped: BRISTOLPostmark: B/ JY/ 23/ 98 Endorsement: 20 July 1798MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 23Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 58–59 [in part].

Articles of Impeachment

against

Grosvenor Charles Bedford,

one of his Majestys light-horseGrosvenor Charles Bedford had joined a company of volunteer cavalry, probably the Light Horse Volunteers of London and Westminster.

_______

1. that he the said Grosvenor Charles Bedford has persisted in a long & obstinate silence, a crime humanely punished in his majestys dominions by flogging & half-hanging.

2. that he has detained dispatches from Anthony Carlisle requesting the attention of R.S. to some children then at Bristol, till the children had left the place.

3dly that he is vehemently <suspected> from the external appearance of the letter of having used it in the way by which the Huns were accustomed to make mule steaks.The Huns, a group of nomadic tribes of the 4th and 5th centuries AD, were thought to eat raw meat, which they tenderised by placing under their saddles at the beginning of the day’s ride.

________

Grosvenor! most mulish Grosvenor! beast! for beasts are dumb & you are silent, & to be silent is to be dumb & to be dumb is to be a beast, & therefore are you most logically brutalized. O for a dictionary of vituperation – a Gradus ad ParnassumA dictionary used to assist in the writing of Latin verse. The Latin translates as ‘steps to Parnassus’. of abuse – a Thesaurus of execrations that might make ErnulphusErnulf or Ernulphus, Bishop of Rochester (1040–1124), was regarded as an authority on cursing; see Laurence Sterne (1713–1768; DNB), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 9 vols (London, 1759–1767), III, pp. 309–311. damn himself for a barren-brained blockhead-Beast, for to be obs you are obstinate, & to be obstinate is to be a mule, therefore beast again! Beast, for to be a soldier is to be a brute, therefore yet again I say beast. b monstrous beast – for to be a horse soldier is to be a CentaurIn mythology a creature that was half-man and half-horse. therefore prodigious beast! hast thou ears to hear? let the voice of malediction rumble like down thy auricular labyrinths like the mail coach over Brentford stones.The main road between London and the south west of England passed down the high street of Brentford in Middlesex. Southey would have travelled through Brentford many times on this route. hast thou eyes to see? let them look upon the letter that disturbs thy indolent repose, pleasantly as the rock-ribbed toad leers at the stone-mason who saws him open.

It has done me good. I am better – much better. forty grains of IpecacuanhaA commonly-used emetic. could not have been <more> beneficial to my gall – a voyage across the Bay of BiscayThe waters of the Bay of Biscay were notoriously turbulent. could not have renderd me more pigeon-livered. I am softened – turtleized – yea a very lamb. I am prepared to read thy expiatory lines with the favourable eye of reconciliation – My expectation gapes for thy letter like a frog in a hot dusty day on the turnpike road; it will swallow thy excuses as a whale bolts herrings.

Write & thou shalt hear from me, as how I am dwelling in a house – which – to the great titillation of thy risible nerves is christened

Martin-hall.

I have asked Wynn to come to it.

Grosvenor God bless thee. Robert Southey.

In verite you have left <me> in suspense respecting your goings on – which if I had not had most negro employments would have been very unpleasant. direct to Cottles – & one more God bless you.

Friday evening. 20th July 17981798: Added in another hand.