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 rce665 letterEEd.26.656 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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Huntington Library, HM 4833 . Previously published: J. W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), I, pp. 397-399.

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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 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
656. Robert Southey to William Taylor, 6 February 1802 Address: To/ Mr Wm Taylor Junr/ Surry Street./ Norwich./ SingleStamped: 449 StrandPostmark: AFE/ 6/ 1802MS: Huntington Library, HM 4833 Previously published: J. W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), I, pp. 397-399. My dear Friend

I did not till yesterday receive your note. at an hour too late to answer it. I have been confined to the house, therefore not able to look for my letters, & Corry being himself unwell, neglected to send them.

A letter which I wrote this day week to Harry explained my delay in setting off for Norwich. Edith is somewhat amended – but very little, & very slowly. Unless she relapse – & unless I also relapse – for I have been very unwell myself – I shall hope to see you in the course of the following week. – Your letter is a very kind one. almost I could find fault with some part of it for its too much civility.

John May sends by me half a pound of cigars, & two glass pipes of the last fashion. they tempt me to learn to smoke.

Perhaps you knows not the news of Burnett. He had been only a week with Lord Stanhope when his two pupils eloped, enticed away by an elder sister, who avows what she has done, & affirms that Lord S.s groom who was the go-between, is rewarded with a place under government.Burnett had been employed as tutor to Charles Stanhope (1785-1809) and James Stanhope (1788-1825), younger sons of the controversial politician and inventor Charles (‘Citizen’) Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753-1816; DNB). The boys’ flight from their father’s house was described in a letter from Charles Lamb to John Rickman, [?1 February 1802], E.W. Marrs Jr (ed.), The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb, 1796-1817, 3 vols (Ithaca, NY and London, 1975-1978), II, pp. 49-50. The key figure in organising their escape was Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839; DNB), their eldest sister and later, an intrepid traveller in the Near East. the father is severely afflicted – I think more so than becomes a philosopher. he appears attached to Burnett – has taken him aside & said that his situation must not be at an end. he hopes to recover the youngest boy – & if not – “I hope said he Mr B. it will be a very long time before you leave me. I never make promises – but rather like to perform.” George was in town upon this business.

Our news is that the King wishes obstinately to retire from all public business, & that this has been the cause of the frequent adjournments.George III (1738-1820; King of Great Britain and Ireland 1760-1820; DNB) had been less publicly visible in 1801 because of a recurrence of the illness that had incapacitated him in 1788-1789. Two Cornish men are in town to procure a Patent for a carriage, driven by steam, as it succeeds in Cornwall,Richard Trevithick (1771-1833; DNB) and Andrew Vivian (1759-1842) secured a patent for their steam locomotive on 24 March 1802. The locomotive had been trialled in Camborne, Cornwall, in December 1801. Bonaparte may bespeak some for his next march across the Alps.Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821; First Consul 1799-1804; Emperor of the French 1804-1814) had led his army across the Alps in May 1800. Davy & Sir Joseph Banks between them have found out that the Terra Japanica is pure tannine.Davy had conducted experiments to confirm the view of Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820; DNB) that Terra Japonica, or Catechu, an extract obtained from mimosa wood, was rich in tannin and could therefore be used in the process of tanning leather. As Terra Japonica was cheaper than oak bark, the substance usually employed, its widespread use might reduce the price of leather goods. Davy publicised his discovery in ‘An Account of some Experiments and Observations on the Constituent Parts of Certain Astringent Vegetables; and On Their Operation in Tanning’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 93 (1803), 233-273. I fear this will not lessen the price of shoe leather tho it must make the fortune of the first tanners who profit by it.

I will put Madoc in my trunk – that you may see it in its crude state & advise me about the bear before I lick him into shape.Southey had completed a fifteen-book version of Madoc in 1799, and was now considering revising it for publication. History employs most of my time & that very delightfully.Southey was working on his projected ‘History of Portugal’. the easy idleness of research suits me well. silk-worm like I prefer eating to spinning.

Godwin is married – to a Widow with one child.Godwin had married Mary Jane Clairmont (1768-1841; DNB) on 21 December 1801. Although she had two children and claimed to be a widow, it was unlikely she had ever been married. what I hear of her does not much please me – nor am I disposed to be pleased with a second Mrs Godwin.Southey was not ‘disposed to be pleased’ with the second Mrs Godwin because he had been a great admirer of the first, Mary Wollstonecraft. he is about the History of the Life & Times of Geoffrey Chaucer, for Phillips.Godwin’s four-volume Life of Geoffrey Chaucer was published in 1804 by Richard Phillips (1760-1840; DNB). a great metaphysical book is in the conceived & about to be born. Thomas Wedgewood the Jupiter whose brain is parturient, MackintoshThe political writer Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832; DNB). the Man midwife – a preface with <on> the history of metaphysical opinions promised by Coleridge. this will perhaps prove an abortion, & be bottled up among other rarities in the Moon.Southey was proved right, the project did not materialise; see Coleridge to Thomas Poole, 19 February 1802, E. L. Griggs (ed.), Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 6 vols (Oxford, 1956-1971), II, p. 787. it has however proceeded so far as to disturb the spiders, whose hereditary claim to Thomas AquinasThomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274), Italian philosopher and Dominican friar. & Duns ScotusDuns Scotus (c. 1265–1308), Franciscan friar and theologian. had not been disputed for many a year before. Time & Space are the main subjects of speculation. I am afraid the book will add nothing to what I have already learnt from the clocks & the mile stones.

God bless you – yrs thankfully & truly Robert Southey. Saturday. Feby 6. 1802.
35. Strand.

Harry will be sorry to hear that Tom is gone to the West Indies. for the chance of Peace this is somewhat hard.