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. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 205–207.
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.
All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
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Your letter, my dear friend, gave me great
pleasure. I have myself found happiness in marriage, &
therefore rejoice that you are about to be married.
Marriage has anchored me. it has given my affections a home, a resting place. I could write over my door with Ariosto
Inveni portum. Spes & Fortuna
valete!
with no hopes or fears to agitate I pass a tranquil & satisfied life, writing & reading in the room with Edith & my mother, not imposing upon them the restraint of silence, & often awaking from my employments to be sensible that I am not a single being. Of the essentials to happiness I want but one – health. & of that I live daily in hope.
You would ere this have heard from me &
received the extracts from Stowes Chronicle – (for it is
Stowe that I ignorantly quoted by the editors name)
What this pain bodes I am at a loss to conjecture. any affection of the heart would necessarily affect the circulation – & of this I am not sensible. for pleurisy I have not blood enough, or general health. if it be a consumptive symptom I shall remove to a warmer climate. one thing cheers me, it has to day & yesterday been less painful – possibly it may be an inflammation, now abating.
To day I had letter from Lisbon. I had
mentioned to my
Uncle a wish to write the History of
Portugal.& I trust it would be a
valuable one. I thought to have seen you here this Xmas –
& now I am quitting the place. this is unfortunate. you
know not with what reluctance I remove – our garden is just
trimmd up – my books are about me – I have learnt my way in
the dark about the house, & I have a companion in Rickman who
interests me. it is true at Bristol I have one of my dearest
friendsrs Danvers’s. 9. St James’s Place. Kingsdown.
Bristol. forget not to tell me when & where you
settle.
<Sunday> As you may imagine we are now much employed. I
have been labouring at my review work – work of which the
payment is by far the most agreable part. also I have been
obliged to make th necessary
extracts from my books as I shall no longer have them at
hand. my side is less painful – but I frequently feel the
intermittent pulse, – a symptom in itself little important,
but which added to the others makes me suspect some local
diseas[MS torn]