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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. Previously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 37–39.
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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You have been I suppose some time in
expectation of hearing from me. the indisposition of my companion
delayed the commencement of our journey for some days, &
when we were on the way I found my time of rest fully
occupied in necessary business & the due letters home.
Maber tells
me to take Edward to St Pauls any time
before he is twelve years old. this is well. the difficulty
now is to get from him from
his aunt.
on this subject I have repeatedly written to my Uncle,
but I never can get any reply. You remember my writing to
him in February after I had seen you & Burn.himself, he would
certainly appoint Dr Thomas to do it. this letter
he has never noticed, tho I know by his alluding to one part
of it that it reached him. I scarcely know how to act. it is
very unpleasant to be always addressing him upon this
subject & receive no reply, yet something must be done,
& however disagreable the business may be, it certainly
will not become less so by being deferred. it is always
better to meet evils than to wait for them.
how it is that Miss Tyler is
so perpetually embarrassed I am utterly at a loss to
conceive. I know the perpetual facility of obtaining money
in small sums from my Mother for many many years, may have been one
great cause for thoughtless expenditure. there is a great
degree of weakness in my Mothers
character. she has never lost the fear she felt when a child
for an elder sister who has perpet always asserted her superiority. &
this fear is carried to so criminal a length that my Aunt has
often drawn from her the money which should have gone to
discharge her debts, & made her borrow money <sums> which she
saw no prospect of repaying. now I trust there is a stop put
to this. & now as my Aunt can no
longer be supplied by her sister,
she must be compelled to that line of conduct which if she
had adopted twenty years ago would have spared her family
the greater part of their after difficulties.
Miss Tyler however expected my Mother would still supply her with money from me; this did surprize my Mother who knew how utterly impossible this was. even if it were in my power it would be wrong to assist her in keeping up a false appearance of high life. but my mother & cousin are with me, this doubles my house keeping expences, & I have been obliged to pay thirteen pounds, the amount of one of my Oxford bills – all of which I thought my Uncle had discharged, but which I now daily expect to come in upon me. one bill of five pounds I have paid which remained of my Mothers debts. all this has exhausted the resources up to this time upon which I calculated to furnish a house in town. still however I shall do well. I have already seen too much the consequences of debt – & I will keep myself unembarrassed.
As Miss Tyler therefore can draw nothing from this
quarter, her circumstances require some immediate
investigation, & as I can get no letter from my Uncle,
my
Mother & I both think it right to let write to Dr
Thomas. my Mother is with her three or four days in a
week. & says that her habitual violence of temper is now
increased by long indulgence absolutely to a state of
derangement. her grandmother resembled her in this
particular & died in confinement. this idea makes my Mother
wretched. what should be done is this. she should by the
sale of her furniture pay her debts as far as it will go,
& live in lodgings upon the income my Uncle
allows her. an income amply sufficient. I know not its exact
amount, but have reason to believe it is the whole of his
Herefordshire preferment, which cannot fall far short of 200
a year.
I have written all this to you, because you
& Burn know so much of our family affairs – &
because it is not pleasant to have xx no one to communicate with upon such subjects.
whether or no Dr Thomas, like my Uncle,
will rather let things go on & grow worse, than
undertake a very disagreable office I know not. it will
certainly be proper to state to him her exact situation.
God bless you. I have been somewhat unwell but am better. Edith is but poorly, tho infinitely better than when she left London. I will write again soon. let me hear from you.