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MS untraced; text is taken from Robert Galloway Kirkpatrick, ‘The Letters of Robert Southey to Mary Barker From 1800 to 1826’ (unpublished PhD, Harvard, 1967), pp. 165–169. . Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 347–350.
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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I should have written sooner to you but for the daily expectation of hearing farther tidings – & the uncomfortable uncertainty which the disappointment occasions. – However it is a wise practical maxim that no news is good news & I shall write in that belief.
First & foremost we have to thank you for a pine apple & a side of venison which was very good, & indeed is so still, for there is a good hash remaining. If these things come from Sir Edward himself – I beg you will make my acknowledgments in suitable phrase.
Secondly I have to request help for D. Manuel Alvarez Espriella.
What do you suppose poor Tom has taken it into his head to send me from
the West Indies by way of a useful present? – a turtle!
There is a monthly review of Madoc in which Envy Hatred & Malice are exhibited stark mad and stark naked. – the
work of some unsuccessful author who fancies that I have reviewed him severely.
My campaign is now fairly begun, & today the first parcel has been packed off for King Arthur. In this the make-weights for the second Vol. of Poems are gone. by the by
this puts me in mind to say that in giving the list of my operas to Sir E. you should make him understand that the Poems should
not be purchased till this new edition comes out – else the Vision will be had twice over.could do, anybody may do without incurring the displeasure of the world. Common
Readers are the worst of all Levellers.
I repented that I had not accompanied you to Kendal & seen you into the mail, & the uncertainty whether you
found room in it or not was my punishment. You are missed, – still more in my study than below stairs. Your litter was become part
of the furniture of the room, & I never like to lose what is become familiar. My
daughter talks of you usually every morning. it is one of her first operations to talk over all her acquaintance, what
they gave her, & where they are, with sometimes a trait of their characters – as in your case. Barter – tums – nuff – don away
– sorry. this is her speech concerning you, & you will perceive in it all the elements of a character & an eulogium. She
also talks of you when she looks at the tree on the screen, or the black sealing wax on her box. In addition to her love for the
fine arts She has learnt to love story telling, & now the first thing in the morning is like the Sultan of the Indies
Take my last song –