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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), II, pp. 62–64 [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.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
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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.
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Of our journey homeward, safe arrival, & finding all well & as it should be, you have heard from Tom. Since he wrote I have been in a state of happy confusion, occasioned by the arrival of my
books – two and twenty packages. Here they are at last, after so many years xxx <that> I have been wanting them,
wishing for them, & yet never able to get them together, here they are gathered under together under one roof. It was only
yesterday that we got them stowed away, – I have had a range of shelves <run up> along one side of the passage which connects the
two houses, – from the floor to the ceiling, – that holds about 1350 volumes, & is denominated Duck Row,
My son walks barefoot, & will I think tread evenly enough on his feet; –
the want of shoes will be some inconvenience xxx – but that cannot be helped. He is a beautiful boy, terribly violent, &
almost unmanageable. All this he will outgrow, if it please God that he lives. I am in great favour with him, & when he & I
have the book of the birds & beasts before us, I teaching him the language of all & he repeating them after me, I verily
believe such a concert hath not been heard since Noah & his live stock came out of the Ark. What you hear at Exeter Change
Tom suffered little inconvenience on the journey – still I believe he will have
reason to repent his obstinacy in running away from King so soon. The parts do not
gather strength, & he is plagued with a procidentia,
I hope also & trust that by this time King has perceived the
villainy of that portrait,
Tom copied out for all that is fairly written of Kehama,tho & if any thing were to induce me to finish the
poem, it would be because such an offer had been made me by such a man; tho of course, it is what I should not accept. If he likes it I
shall make an effort to go thro the story, by writing before breakfast as I did at Westbury,
& at your house; – & see when it is finished whether there be any probability of securing the fair price of so much labour,
either by subscription, or sale of copy right.
Our fair weather began on May Day, exactly as it did four years ago when Edith was born, we ha are obliged to leave off fires, tho a week ago we were
creeping into them. The boat is launched, & we have begun our summer cruises on the Lake. Herbert went on the water yesterday for the first time, & was not a little delighted
with the stroke of the oars but he found out another amusement which not quite so well, that of throwing things out the x
overboard. One of his stockings went, & it required good watching to save his leathern-cap from following it.
Harry has had his first fee – a two guinea one. He pronounced the patient
to be at that time dying, & die she did in two hours: – so the Doctor lost his patient, but lost no credit. – I suppose the parcel
from Bristol will soon make its appearance. Remember me to all friends, & in particular say to Mr Heincker