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Bodleian Library, Eng. Lett. c. 23. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 174-176.
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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I expect to see you soon. in less than three weeks – as soon as distance by land & by water, allowing for an
<
up to Keswick, will
permit. Mr Corry & I have only past thro the
preliminaries of a bow &c take-by-the-hand, for he is
moving off in such a hurry that I do not receive livery
& seisin of the secretarian pen till we reach
London.
Grosvenor if you should think of writing a
book as Ovidmany great specific
differences. If he lives long enough I expect to see him one
of the greatest & most useful men whom our country has
produced. he bends every thing to practice, his very various
knowledge is always brought to bear upon some point of
general importance & his situation will now give him the
power of producing public benefit.
I have spent the first days of my new era,
characteristically & to my satisfaction, as on my
arrival Mr Corry was absent – what did I but
opened Madocr
C returned, & I found myself at leisure – I
went on with my work – so that I have done something in
Ireland.
Howbeit Grosvenor to all that my situation
requires I am equal. punctuality is my pride, method almost
my hobby horse – & I am not deficient in activity.
leisure enough will be left me, & tho my invitation runs
only for a year – if I may believe John Rickman – I
am in the road to fortune – a clean
road Grosvenor, & not a very long way. Huzza! I have had
my ups & downs upon this ocean of the world – but & have no objection
to cast anchor in port.
For the first year my income will not be
increased. it will amount about to the same as my usual
receipt augmented by my own brain-breeding. but my shoulders
are lighter Grosvenor – look at the picture in the Pilgrims
Progress.he put nothing in his pocket
either.
Am I not in right healthy spirits? – & yet they will mend when I get home. it is not good for man to be alone – & tho it were good, it would not be agreable.
Where should I lodge in town to be near Great George Street? I think the River streets from the Strand are not too far. & a more important question – shall I know as much of you when we are in the same place – as when half the island seperates us? – now Grosvenor make you a good resolution – & look you keep it.
Send me a letter to Keswick with a shake by the hand inclosed.
Oh – I had almost forgotten two points of
antiquity. It is the opinion of Coleridge that the Irish are descended from
certain aboriginals who escaped the deluge in a cock boat,
that rested upon Mount Taurus. – my own idea is that they
are of Cretan race – the descendants of Pasiphae.