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Huntington Library, RS 31. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 199-201 [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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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
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Thank you for your letter in all & every one of its parts.
the books which you could not find must be in one of the boxes packed up in the
Strand, & which may easily be
known from the travellers by their looser cordage & fastening. Of the
addendi – & trust me thexx virtue of
supererogation is a great one & goes to account with me – the Italian Life
of Bernard
Domingo & Franciscoxx unless
it be a little book by one Hasenmuller or some such Germanish name – if so I
have the whole trail of that volume ready drest. but there is a folio history of
monachism – which tho it falls miserably short of what such a title ought to
pretend, may be of use – by Hospinian.
By way of fillers – send Osorio de Rebus Eman.
I am rich in books considered as plain & poor Robert Southey,
& in foreign books – considered as an English man. but for my glutton
appetite & healthy digestion, my stock is but small & the Historian
feels daily & hourly the want of materials. I believe I must visit London
for the sake of the Museum.t Francis & Jesus Xt!
Of the Beguinsxxxx for the two centuries between Francisco
& Luther.
Do not suspect me of querulousness. labour is my amusement, &
nothing makes me growl but that the kind of labour cannot be wholly my own
choice. that I must lay aside old chronicles, to review modern poems instead of
composing from a full head. that I must write like a school boy upon some idle
theme on which nothing can be said or ought to be said. I believe the best thing
will be as you hope. for if I live & do well my history
Coleridge is with me at present. he talks of going abroad – for poor fellow he suffers terribly from this climate. you bid me come with the swallows to London! I wish I could go with the swallows on their winterly migration.
If I have not specified books enough to fill a package-case, make up the quantity by any thing relative to Spain Portugal, the East or West-Indies.
Farewell – we are all a little ailing – & all with sore eyes, for which as there must be some general cause I wish we could find a general remedy.
y 30.