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 rce816 letterEEd.26.807 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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Berg Collection, New York Public Library . Not previously published.

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
807. Robert Southey to Charles Biddlecombe, 18 July 1803 Address: To/ Charles Biddlecombe Esqr/ Burton/ near Ringwood/ SinglePostmark: [partial] OL/ 18 1803MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library Unpublished. My dear Sir

It is very long since I have heard from you – & the defaulture is certainly on your side now. but I suppose you are soldiering again & busy in organizing the defence of the country.Biddlecombe had been a member of the Christchurch Gentlemen and Yeomanry Cavalry until October 1801. this unlucky, &, in my judgement, unavoidable war has actually placed England in greater peril than she has ever been subject to since the days of the Armada,The attempt to invade England in 1588 by Spain. but that peril is every day diminishing, & if the measure of teaching every man the use of arms be carried into effect, the country will be safe for ever. tis what old Major CartwrightJohn Cartwright (1740-1824; DNB), radical and proponent of universal suffrage. has been crying out for these thirty years – & now WyndhamWilliam Windham (1750-1810; DNB), Secretary at War 1794-1801. He played a prominent part in the debates over the Army of Reserve Acts in June and July 1803. proposes it – & we are to have it decreed by parliament!The Army of Reserve Acts (1803) provided for a new Army of Reserve to defend Britain from invasion. If any parish could not provide enough volunteers, there was a ballot of all the adult male parishioners. The government also called for a new volunteer force to harass any invading French army. Wyndham arming the people! such are the odd changes of the world. It is a most important step, for if it be acted upon with common prudence it would preclude the necessity of ever keeping up any other military establishment, but this must not be looked for. patronage is too essential to the governors to let them ever drop a standing army.

I was in town last week – as if you have seen Miss RickmanRickman’s sister, Mary Rickman (dates unknown). you probably have learnt. & I had the good fortune to see Westminster AbbeyThere was a fire in the roof of Westminster Abbey on 9 July 1803. before the fire was quite extinguished. a most impressive sight it was, & a very fine one. when the extent of the mischief was known – & that in fact it was rather a good thing than an evil, as nothing but the poor & paltry patchwork – wooden roofs & painted canvass. the works of modern parsimony were consumed. the Choir was full of smoaking ruins when I got into the Church, & sparks & burning fragments still falling – & the light came in thro the chasm & made the noble pillars & stone arched roof look far more grand & magnificent than I had ever before seen them: they looked as if they had been built for eternity. the floor in Poets Corner sunk so with the effect of the water that I half expected to have seen my old acquaintance Lady StrathmoreMary Eleanor Bowes, Lady Strathmore (1749-1800; DNB). She was buried in Westminster Abbey. & her speaking trumpet. there ought to be some punishment for the Plumbers when they occasion such fires. it is perpetually happening. one or two of these fellows should be thrown into the flames – it would not be the first time that men had been so sacrificed for the good of the Church.

I am going to reside near London – probably at Richmond. will you have the goodness to send off the remainder of my books &c to Rickman. I hope soon to collect them all together, & indeed have already begun the heavy labour of cataloguing them. The main motive which takes me to that neighbourhood is to manage & superintend a great literary undertaking – a Bibliotheca Britannica which you will see announced as to be done, in the next Monthly Magazine. Monthly Magazine, 16 (August 1803), 51; the project was abandoned by Longman and Rees in August 1803. this title commonly means only a dictionary of authors & their works, but by giving it a chronological arrangement, adding biography & criticism, & connecting chapters it may be made a readable & very interesting book, as well as the most important work for a scholar & indeed for every man of letters, that exists in the language. the extent cannot be guessed – eight or ten large quartos at least, but it will be published in parts – that is half volumes like the Cyclopaedia.The Cyclopaedia: or An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences was an encyclopaedia, first published in 1728, and much expanded and republished throughout the eighteenth century, especially by Abraham Rees (1743-1825; DNB), The New Cyclopaedia, 45 vols (1802-1820). Of course I am to have many assistants, but the plan & authority & whole management are mine.

My brother is in the Galatea,HMS Galatea, a 32-gun Royal Navy frigate. now in sight of you at Yarmouth, & wishing to reach you, but no leave is given to sleep on shore. he saw your neighbour Captain Somebody – who I conceive must be living in Cookes house, & who described his situation as being near the cottage of Southey the poet – not knowing that Tom was my brother. poor fellow there he has been for three months or more, waiting for men, & still without them, & almost without hope of getting them, while others are reaping the harvest of prizes, & bringing them in under his very nose! is it not mortifying.

Edith desires to be remembered to you & to your good Mother.Mrs Biddlecombe’s first name and dates are unknown. I heard of your little girlsBiddlecombe’s daughter was born in 1799. Her name is unknown. well doing from Miss Rickman. Remember us too to Mr Coleman.Unidentified; an acquaintance of Southey’s from his residence at Burton in 1797 and 1799.

God bless you – Yours very truly R Southey.
Kingsdown. Bristol.
July 18. 1803.