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 rce443 letterEEd.26.434 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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British Library, Add MS 30927. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 198–200.

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.

All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.

Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.

Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.

Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.

Southey's spelling has not been regularized.

Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.

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£ has been used for £, the pound sign

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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
434. Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 6 September 1799 Address: To/ Lieutenant Thomas Southey./ Sylph Brig./ Torbay/ or elsewhere/ SingleStamped: EXETERMS: British Library, Add MS 30927Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 198–200. My dear Tom

I direct to you at a venture – whenever this may find you, write by return & say where you are that I may know where to look for you.

We went from Bristol to Minehead where I passed as uncomfortable a fortnight as I ever remember. Edith was during the whole time exceedingly unwell. as she grew better we fell upon this plan. she should go to her sisters at Stowey, which was not far distant. & I would walk down the North coast to Ilfracombe. if on my return she was better we might proceed. if not – it was better to return to Bristol.

At Minehead I received a letter from Coleridge Coleridge to Southey, 29 July 1799, E.L. Griggs (ed.), The Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 6 vols (Oxford, 1956–1971), I, pp. 523–524. – & another from his friend Poole.Poole to Southey, 8 August 1799, E.L. Griggs (ed.), The Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 6 vols (Oxford, 1956–1971), I, p. 524. it seems Lloyd had made as many strange stories of me to him, as of him to me. I was convinced by proof irrefragable – & remained a fortnight at Stowey. from thence we all set sail together. the Coleridges for Ottery to his brothers – we for Sidmouth. we could get no lodgings at Seaton Sidmouth, or along that coast. so we housed ourselves as Hobsons Choice at Exeter. whither direct at Mr Tuckers. Fore Street-Hill.Possibly the retired stationer and bookseller Richard Tucker (fl. 1779–1784), whose business had occupied premises on Fore-Street, Exeter.

Now Tom I mean to walk round the coast to Plymouth, & it will be very unlucky if we I should not meet with you. if you are at Torbay you can surely perhaps come to us. however I shall set off on my walk on Tuesday or Wednesday next. Coleridge will I believe walk with me & I expect to see a fine country. tho tho after the North of Somersetshire all that I have yet seen in this county is very tame & uninteresting.

I breakfasted with Aunt Molly at Bishops Lediard,Southey had breakfasted with his aunt on 12 August 1799, his twenty-fifth birthday; see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 521. & was somewhat amused at seeing that she sold leather breeches among other articles. also I passed the Cottage,Home of Southey’s wealthy bachelor uncle, John Southey. which is an ill-looking place enough, & might with equal propriety be called a palace – being as much like one as the other. I slept one night at Taunton at the inn – & wishd you had been there to have given me a peep at the Tauntonians.

We go to Burton at Michaelmas29 September 1799. which will soon be here. The Annual Anthology is printed. Annual Anthology (1799). I will put my copy in my pocket for you. in the Dom DanielAn early name for Thalaba the Destroyer (1801). some progress is made, almost to the end of the second book. the remaining part of Madoc shall come in my knapsack, if we I am likely to find you in port.

I have seen the Valley of Stones, which itself is wonderfully fine & stands close by some of the most magnificent scenery I ever beheld. Tom you have talked of Somersetshire & its beauties, but you have never seen the finest part of Somersetshire. the neighbourhood of Stowey of Minehead & Porlock exceed anything I ever saw in England before.

At Exeter I find some old books. my remarks upon the city are that it stinks. & that on public rejoicings they ring two bells at one church – & one at another – which make excellent ding dong music. the place by the beastly slovenliness or sluttishness or swinosity of its pork-people reminds me of Lisbon, & like Lisbon its situation is adapted for cleanliness.

I am very busy on many huge plans. among others a great hexameter work, in conjunction with Coleridge:Coleridge and Southey’s plan for a jointly-written poem in hexameters on Muhammad (570–632), the Prophet of Islam, did not make much progress; see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 18–20. A fragment by Southey was published posthumously in Oliver Newman: a New-England Tale (London, 1845), pp. 113–116; and 14 lines by Coleridge in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, 3 vols (London, 1834), II, p. 68. you know I had a hankering after the metre at Westbury, & he got bit in Germany.

God bless you – I trust soon to see your lapelles – yrs affectionately. Robert Southey.

Friday. Sept. 6. 99.