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Huntington Library, RS 22. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 195-197; Orlo Williams, Lamb’s Friend the Census-Taker. Life and Letters of John Rickman (Boston and New York, 1912), p. 81 [in part].
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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Now that my arrangements pro tempore
Our journey was cheap. four & twenty
hours for three & twenty shillings. what a bargain if
the coach had been as long again upon the road! I find some
good books arrived for me from Lisbon. two of the oldest
& rarest chronicles − the best book upon Abyssinia −
& the whole monastic history of the kingdom & its
colonies.two three first centuries, & then I enter
upon the splendid period
aera of discovery.
You will soon I hope be able to send me
intelligence from the Chancellor. I left him a note the morning of our
departure. I am well pleased that our connection should end
− not but any foolish office is desirable with such a salary
annexed − but I am weary of vagabonding about − & have
now a pressing motive for settling. Nor can I & my books
afford to be so seperated any longer. I should now be half a
dozen times in the course of a day in your house, if the
Devil would carry me there, or I could ride a broomstick.
About the where of my abiding place there is little
hesitation. Bristol has not enough society. for that Norwich
is the best place − but the neighbourhood of London allows a
readier intercourse of with
booksellers − & in ceasing to be a Secretary I must
become a Scribbler. My stay here − or at least Ediths − if it
should please the Powers above to whistle me over to Dublin − cannot be
less than four months − I expect that your definitive
intelligence will enable me to commission John May to have his
eye upon the small houses around Richmond, & secure me
one at Michaelmas. He fixes me to that neighbourhood. One
friend within a half hours walk is among the necessaries of
life.
I met Poole here on his way to France − & desired that he would make Davy take him to you. he is a man whom you will like to converse with − for his pursuits have been chiefly agriculture & political oeconomy. he is self-taught, & his mind powerful, active & discriminating.
The Pneumatic Institution continues. the name
should be changed
Do you know anything − that is have you ever thought anything about the production of mushrooms? I want to have a method discovered of producing them in great quantities − because they contain more nutriment than any vegetable substance − & appear to need no manure. & besides they are excellent in a hundred ways. The world wants some Epicure to turn Chemist − & give us a scientific book of cookery. I dream of a thousand things which I could do if settled in a house in the country with a garden.
direct Kingsdown. Bristol.
Danvers − his Mother − & Edith all desire to be remembered
I direct with the old &c formula to Mr Abbot.