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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. 62-64.
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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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
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My dear friend
Doubtless the date of my letter will surprize you. I hurried hither with such speed, as to allow myself neither leisure of time nor rest of mind for announcing to you & the rest of my friends, my change of circumstances.
Rickman, whose name you know, having
by the Population Actr Abbotintroduce led him
to an intimacy with Mr
Corry, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Corry wanting a
similar assistant, enquired if Rickman knew any man of talents for the office, xx worthy of full confidence. my name was
mentioned to him, & the letters which I had since my return from Portugal,
written to Rickman, were by him
shown to Mr
Corry, as explanatory of my then views. Mr Corry then
wrote to me – offering me 200£ a year, & a like sum for travelling expences.
for one year – that if the diplomatic line pleased me better, or promised more I
might get into it. – I was with Wynn & Elmsley in
Wales when the offer arrived. there could be no hesitation in accepting it –
there was indeed no power of choice. I hurried back to Keswick – hastily prepared there, left
Edith with her sister & here I am. – as yet
I have not seen Mr
Corry who is from town. in the course of ten days he will probably
remove to England, of course I follow him, with Edith to London, where we abide till
June.
By this very unexpected change, tho no immediate advantage
accrues to me, much is promised. immediately I become independent. my neat
income, deducting the travelling expences from the 369 pounds Irish English money which I shall receive, will
not exceed what my own labours would have produced in addition to the 160 which
I should have received. but if I should like my situation & suit it, Mr Corry can be a
very useful friend, & if otherwise, as Wynn observed, a diplomatic
situation is more readily obtained for one who has already had some employment
in official transactions. As yet knowing nothing of the person with whom I am
connected, nor the I can say nothing – I feel
only the bustle & discomfort of sudden alteration – the loneliness of a man
who has left his wife behind him, & when I walk the streets, bitterly regret
the Lakes & the Mountains.
However that I have acted not only with common prudence & due worldly wisdom, but as was incumbent upon me in my circumstances, in conformity to all reason, & principle, & duty, I feel fully & entirely satisfied. how my health will bear a town life, is the only doubt. that I loathe & abhor it with all my physical & moral being is of inferior consideration. One obvious source of pleasure it affords – access to many friends. I hope & expect to shake you by the hand in three weeks. but let me first hear what you think upon the way of life into which I have fallen.
Direct to me under cover to
Right Honble
&c &c &c
your letter will in all probability reach me here, if not it follows me without cost.