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MS untraced; text is taken from Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850). Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), II, pp. 13–15 [in part].Dating note: Internal evidence suggests this letter was written after that to Edith Southey of 1-3 May 1799 (Letter 403), and before that of 9 May 1799 (Letter 405).
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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At last, my dear Edith, I sit down to write to you in quiet and
with something like
comfort
.
.
.
. My morning
has been spent pleasantly, for it has been spent alone in the library; the hours
so employed pass rapidly enough, but I grow more and more homesick like a spoilt
child. On the 29th you may expect me. Term opens on the
26th; after eating my third dinner I can drive to the
mail, and thirteen shillings will be well bestowed in bringing me home
four-and-twenty hours earlier – it is not above sixpence an hour, Edith, and I
would gladly purchase an hour at home now at a much higher
price
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
My stall-hunting, the great and only source of my enjoyment in London, has been
tolerably successful. I have picked up an epic poem in French, on the Discovery
of America,
I met Stuart one day, luckily, as it saved me a visit. To-morrow must be given up to writing for him, as he has had nothing since I came to town. The more regularly these periodical works are done, the easier they are to do. I have had no time since I left home: in fact I can do nothing as it should be done anywhere else.
.
.
.
. Do not suppose I
have forgotten to look out for a book for you; to-day I saw a set of
Florian,
.
.
.
. Do you know that I
am truly and actually learning Dutch, to read Jacob Cats.