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British Library, Add MS 30928. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 309–312.
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 is so long since you have written that I begin to look with some anxiety for tidings of you. – I have letters
from Tom, twice since my last. The first to say that he had been brought to a Court
Martial by his Captain, for disobedience of orders, neglect of duty, & contempt of his superior officer. The two first charges
were not proved. But it was proved that when Captain HeathcoteGalatea 1803–1805.Amelia was a finer ship than Thomas Southey’s previous ship, the Galatea, because she was a
38-gun Hébé-class frigate of the French navy captured in 1796 and commissioned into the navy.
As soon as his first letter arrived I wrote hastily to bid him draw on you for thirty-pounds.Galatea made an unsuccessful attempt to cut out the French privateer General Ernouf
(formerly the British sloop of war Lilly) lying at the Saintes near Guadeloupe. Of the 90 men sent on the
mission 65 were killed or wounded. Southey had suspected that his brother was among the dead, having read in the newspapers
that the first lieutenant had been killed. Thomas had been placed under arrest and Lieutenant Charles Hayman (d. 1804), his
replacement on the raid, died instead.Amelia, who, having been sent to the disease-ridden Leeward Islands station, died on 6 August 1804 at Surinam, from
yellow fever.
No news of Coleridge for so very long a time that I am really very anxious about him. tho I remember how long you often were without letters from the Mediterranean. – We go on well. the Edithling thrives as we could wish. she has <as yet> only two teeth, which came without inconvenience, & we daily expect the two upper ones to make their appearance. Edith is very weak & fatter than ever you saw her. & I myself just as usual, or as to the eyes better than usual.
The printer lags with Madoc.for ship for Tom to Barbadoes, directed to the care of Mr Nathan Jackson.
I am still Annualizing.thim ought have been
employed. It seems Phillips has bought the Review, which is rather a good thing,
for tho that fellow is the most compleat & perfect rascal this day existing, he takes the right side in politics, & is
likely to keep it.
Hartley is from home visiting Mrs Wordsworths sisters near Penrith.rs Wilson who sleeps with him, & [MS torn] listen! – & off he sets like a Preacher. If he has been
behaving amiss, away he goes for the Bible, & looks out for something apposite to his case in the Psalms, or the Book of Job.
the other day after he had been in a violent passion, he chose out a chapter against wrath – ‘ah! that suits me!’ The Bible is
also resorted to whenever he ails anything, – or else the prayer book. He once made a pun, upon occasion of the belly ache – tho I
will not say that he designed it – Oh Mrs Wilson I’se got the Colic!rs Wilson loves him – & he is
as fond of her as it is in his nature to be of any thing, & probably loves her better than he does any body else. Last summer
she was dangerously ill, & Hartley in consequence came & lived at
home. He never manifested the slight uneasiness or concern about her, nor ever would go near her. I do not know whether I should
xxxx wish to have such a child or not. there is not the slightest evil in his disposition, but it wants something
to make it steadily good. physically & morally there is a defect of courage. He is afraid of receiving pain, to such a degree
that if any person begins to read a newspaper, he will leave the room least there should be any thing shocking in it. This is the
explication of his conduct during Mrs Wilsons illness. he would not
see her, because it would give him pain, & when she was out of sight, he contrived to forget her. – I fear that if he lives he
will dream away life like his father, too much delighted with his own ideas
ever to embody them – or suffer them if he can help it, to be disturbed. – I gave him Robinson Crusoe two years ago. he never has
read, nor will read beyond Robinsons departure from the Island. No – he says – he does not care about him after wards, & never
will know. – You will find infinite amusement from him when you come to visit us. – I have a noble jack ass whom you will find of
use – for you must not fatigue yourself, & by Johns
Ediths love – how are my friends Cupid & Joe?