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British Library, Add MS 47888. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), III, pp. 344–348 [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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We left St Helens after an early breakfast on
Tuesday, with Tom in company, looked
at Raby & Barnard Castle, & made our way to the porters lodge at Rokeby,
near that fine bridge over which we past in the rain. A sturdy old woman,
faithful to her orders, refused us admittance, saying that if we were going to
the Hall we might go in, but if not we must not enter the grounds, nor would she
let us in till we had promised to call at the Hall. Accordingly, against the
grain in observance of this promise to the house I went, having first enquired
if W. Scott was there, requested
permission to see the grounds. Mr M.r &
Mrs M.a little more resembling Lowther,xxxx finer
scenery than either. There is a summer house overlooking it, the inside of which
was ornamented by Masonxxx xxx will doubtless be preserved as long as a
rag remains. This river in 1771 rose in the most extraordinary manner during
what is still called the great flood. There is a bridge close by the summer
house, at least sixty feet above the water, against this bridge & its side
the river piled up an immense dam of trees and rubbish which it had swept before
it. xxx the water At length down comes a stone of such a size that it
knocked down Greta Bridge by the way, knocked away the whole mass of trees,
carried off the second bridge, & lodged some little way beyond it upon the
bank, breaking into three or four pieces. Playfairthem it. The people of the house came to their relief & sawed
the boughs off to let them out, & the windows remain as they were left – a
memorial of this most extraordinary flood.
Mr Morritts father
Long Sir Thomas found a portrait of Richardsonr Richardson a very unfit personage to be suspended in
effigy among Lords Ladies & Baronets, he ordered xx <a>
painter to put him on the xxxx star & blue ribband, & then
christened the picture Sir Robert Walpole.xxx
xxxxxx Mr Morritt will not suffer then
the portrait to be restored. This however is not the most extraordinary picture
in the room. – That is one of Long Sir T’s intended improvements, – representing
the river, which now flows the finest rocky bed I ever beheld, – metamorphosd by
four dams into a piece of water as smooth & as still as a canal, &
elevated by the same operation so as to xx appear at the end of a
smooth shaven green. Mr M. xxxx <shows>
this with great glee – he has brought there from our country the stone fern,
& the osmunda regalis.r Morritts
(I believe) dressd in the very pink of the mode, & askd if that Lady was the
Madonna.
I am sorry too that I forgot to ask if this was the Lady whose
needle work is in the house.r M. had an Aunt who
taught Miss Linwood.xxxx
better, – for she made her stitches athwart & across, exactly as the strokes
of the original pictures. Miss L. (Mr M says) makes her
stitches all in one way. This Lady had great difficulty about her worsteds,
& could only suit herself by buying damaged xx occasioned by holding her hands so
continually in an elevated position working at the canvas. xx xxx.
Her last picture is hardly finished, the needle Mr M. says
literally dropt from her hands, – death had been creeping on her for twelve
years.
Next morning we took chaise for two xxx stages – to
Richmond & Leyburn. The former is in situation like Durham, with a little to
remind me of Ludlow, & a little, in its air of antiquity, of Glastonbury: –
certainly one of the fine things of England. Easeby Abbey is near, on the banks
of the river, – a very fine ruin. To Leyburn over a large tract of newly
inclosed country, then we entered upon Wensley dale, one of the loveliest tracts
I ever saw. We walked up the dale 18 miles to Hawes, leaving Bolton Castle on
our right & seeing the falls of the Ure at Aysgarth (which Mr
Erskine recommended us to see) & leaving the little town of
Askrigg on our right. At the higher end of the valley, almost every field has an
out house in it, for housing the hay & the cattle, – this gives a most
singular appearance to the country. Walked from Hawes a mile & half to Ardra
Scar, – a waterfall which I have no room to describe here. Took chaise that
night 17 miles to Ingleton Walks, the morning a road of 13 miles to the caves
& Thornton force. & then 10 more to Settle. Tomorrow we walk to Malham
& Gordale Scar a round of 14, – back to Ingleton (weather permitting) &
chaise it to Lancaster. Our future movements depend upon the time for crossing
the sands, so that I cannot say where our sleeping place will be – only that we
shall go to Ulverston, see Furness Abbey, make for Irton, & come home by
Wasdale over the Stye, – probably at home on Monday night. Our feet are sound
& we are as well as could be wishd, & have thus far been as fortunate. I
have finishd this since supper, having supt nobly. It was time, yesterday the
only animal food which I took was three quarters of a fish at supper, out of a
pie & I had none today till supper: but eggs & milk, & tea &
toast are little things to walk upon. God bless you. RS.
Tom will only stay three days I
believe.