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British Library, Add MS 30928. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 333-335.
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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It quite provokes me that Longman should send a second parcel to Bristol forgetting that I am
in Cumberland. let it be sent back to him & beg Barryrs
YescombeKing George, which sailed between Falmouth
and Lisbon. He died on 11 August 1803, from wounds received when his ship
was attacked by a French privateer on 30 July 1803. The King
George was taken to the Spanish port of Vigo, and Southey lost his
books.
Tom wrote to me from Cork where he
found my letters waiting for him. poor fellow he writes very affectionately as
if I were his only living relation, & in truth as to all vital feelings
& actions of relationship so it is. brothers much younger than oneself
excite uneasiness & nothing else. – The cold weather has come upon us
prematurely – we had an autumn like summer, & now here is frost &
nipping of noses in November! the very Devils own weather – such as must console
Bonaparte
In this kind of life one idles away time by stirring the fire
& dreaming before it. I did more at Bristol – when rising every half hour to
that poor child.
however I am working too well to have any cause for complaint. for the last week
my spell has been history. it has carried me thro the whole voyage of Vasco de
Gama,
The Bownhamrs Smith soon
– in truth I feel myself very much obliged to her & her husband. as for the
Chattertonrs Newtons
I look forward to your coming with much hope. this country will show you more than you have ever seen yet – & yet to see all of which this country is capable must be the work of years. the accidents of the elements are so infinite. a few days ago we had a very grand appearance which is not very uncommon. between five & six before the sun light was gone or the moon was bright, the whole circle of the mountains became of one dead even blue. their distances, their crags & promontories, their dells & hollows were all utterly obliterated – you saw nothing but one smooth surface of blue, so smooth that tho not transparent it seemed transvious – as tho it were a cloudy substance & you could have past thro it.
This rumoured rupture with Portugal vexes me on your account as
well as my own. yet if it should so prove, perhaps the additional value of your
stock in hand will counter balance the loss of turning your capital to some
other employ. but such a war will not last long – it would be too unnatural a
coalition to hang together, & the Portugueze could not long subsist xxx if at war with England. – by the by have you
received a box of manuscripts from Mr Murdock
Mr Clarkson,
the man who so nobly came forward about the Slave Trade to the ruin of his
health – or rather state of mind – & to the deep injury of his fortunes – is
about to come to Bristol, & will expect letters from me. his wife is to be placed under
Beddoes, & is now, if I do
not mistake, at Mr
Lovells.
We are quite out of the way here. Mr Edmundson
r 7. 1803.