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 rce824 letterEEd.26.815 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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British Library, Add MS 30927. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 322-324.

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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Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.

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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
815. Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 2 August 1803 Address: [deletion and readdress in another hand] To/ Lieutenant Southey/ H. M. S. Galatea/ Yarmouth/ Isle of Wight/ <by Lymington>/ SinglePostmark: BRISTOL/ AUG 2 1803MS: British Library, Add MS 30927Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 322-324. Dear Tom

I have written to Longman & Rees about your AmadisSouthey’s translation of Amadis of Gaul (1803). requesting them to inform either me or you by what conveyance it was sent, or if it was not sent, to forward it without delay. of course if you do not hear from them you will from me.

Rickman failed in one attempt to get Edward a birth. he has tried elsewhere & assures me that ‘the young gentleman shall be afloat ere long.’ I have given him your great coat to be midshipmannified, your white worsted breeches – & your chest. do you know his Aunt means to go with him to the port – & actually talks of setting off for Portsmouth before he has an appointment. I have talked of the madness of this to him that she may be prevented if possible.

Biddlecombe told me of your visit. should you be still at Yarmouth when Rickman is in the country he will be very glad to see you, & may perhaps come on board. that drawing which Mrs   B. has was a copy by Mrs Keenan from her husbands first picture of me.John Keenan’s (fl. 1780-1819) latest portrait of Southey was being exhibited at the Royal Academy. Keenan’s wife was the sister of Daniel MacKinnon (1767-1830), whose Tour through the British West Indies Southey reviewed in Annual Review for 1804, 3 (1805), 50-56. you shall have something better. I sate for Duppa when in London & he designs to engrave the likeness & strike off a few copies for friends.The portrait by Duppa does not seem to have survived.

Margaret is cutting more teeth & ailing in consequence, which has made her lose flesh.

I am still at historySouthey’s unfinished ‘History of Portugal’. exclusively & have made a very rapid progress. this week more reviewing will come in – in which you could have helped me – for I expect Clarkes History of Naval Discoveries, & Capt Burneys Hist. of the discoveries in the South Sea.James Stanier Clarke (1766-1834; DNB), The Progress of Maritime Discovery (1803) and James Burney, A Chronological History of the Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean (1803); both were reviewed in Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), 3-20. did I tell you that he was in the navy & had been twice with Capt. Cooke.James Cook (1728-1779; DNB), naval captain and explorer. he is now with Lamb s & his sister in the Isle of Wight – if you should hear of them claim acquaintance for your namesake. he is a very happy chearful little man – loves a quaint thing as dearly I do, & taught the people of Otaheite to make puns, for which they ought to deify him.

Danvers is in the midst of moving – always an unpleasant job – & with his state of feelings more particularly so. he has found lodgings in Orchard Street. CupidCharles Danvers’s dog. is to be given away – not much to BettysDanvers’s servant. liking, nor to mine, nor to his own I dare say. he has been effectually shamed out of fowl hunting – by having a dead chicken hung round his neck for half a day. it was ridiculous to see him how miserably he was ashamed, sneaking into holes & corner, his tail between his legs, & those legs moving like a sloths – or at the pace that a thief walks to the whipping post. your friend JoeTom Southey’s dog. for whom you never enquire, visits home daily for his meals & looks very well, but limps a little at present. – King had a PrincessZoe King (1803-1881). born unto him on Sunday last.

I am going at last to commit a great extravagance, having vowed a vow that I will this buy a gold watch key, & no longer stink my fingers with old brass – a good vow for Mr Powell.Possibly Edward Powell (fl. 1795-1818), a Bristol watchmaker. the next act of prodigality I suppose will be a seal.

There are nearly two thousand volunteersIn 1803 the government called for a new volunteer force to harass any French army that invaded Britain. in Bristol – so much for our loyalty. & orders are given to the Generals in case of actual service, to station them where they cannot run away – so much for their courage. Dogs. they have volunteered to do duty at the French prison in case of invasion – which is in the eye of the law – as if I being liable to pay one pound tax should volunteer to pay five shillings instead, for by law every man is compellable to fight in case of invasion, by law, even if his own nature did not impel him to it. This Irish businessThe abortive Irish rising on the night of 23 July 1803, led by Robert Emmet (1778-1803; DNB). shocking as it is, is very fortunate. God knows what might have been the consequence had they waited for the aid of France there – or till we were embarrassed by invasion here in England. De Paddies always make some noble blunder – always too soon or too late – happily for all quiet people who have an objection to being murdered.

It vexes me to think how you are lying without hope! I am not surprized at the effect your Boatswains character produces – because I suppose the men are very much under his power – but are there no means of getting rid of him – no way of promoting him to get him out of the way?

I am going to the Post Office – for my watch key – & to see my old friend JuniperJuniper (first name and dates unknown), a Bristol carpenter who also seems to have been interested in bookbinding. whom I have not seen these three months –

God bless you RS. Tuesday. Aug. 2. 1803.