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Berg Collection, New York Public Library, In 74 A. L. S. to various correspondents. . Previously published: M. Betham-Edwards, ‘Letters of Coleridge, Southey and Lamb to Matilda Betham’, Fraser’s Magazine, ns 18 (July 1878), 73–84.
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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The Picturesxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xx xxxx xxx xxx,
– & as was to be expected the large glass broken into fifty pieces. All the others by good fortune have escaped. It is well for the
frame-maker that I am not Buonaparte, – as I should think cutting his ears off not too severe a punishment for the absurdity of sending
such things by such a conveyance, when the waggon would have brought them with perfect safety, at one fourth of the cost.
Unquestionably the loss ought to fall upon him, & if Bedford has
not paid him, I shall remonstrate upon the subject, – tho I am a bad hand at such disputes myself, & in conscience one cannot
expect a friend to dispute for one. The worst of the business is the great inconvenience it occasions, – for how is another glass to be
sent, when the frame is here? – however I must make enquiry as to the possibility of getting one of that xxx size
here, <upon the spot> & endeavour to do the enamelling myself. But it is as vexatious as I ever permit a thing
of no greater moment to be, because it has been occasioned by a piece of folly not to have been calculated upon.
Dyers picture is a most happy likeness. He does me wrong if he supposes that I do
not set great value upon it, for I have a great regard for him, & so much respect for his better part, that I never lose sight of
it even when his oddities & weaknesses provoke a smile. It is melancholy to think see so many of the ingredients both of
genius & happiness existing in that mans mind, & spoilt in the mixing, – to think how trifling an alteration in his character
would have made him as useful as he is good, & as happy as useful. – The frames look well, but by no means so well as they would
have done if the gilding had been broader. It was a bitter disappointment not to find Moons picture among them, – because we remembered it as the happiest likeness, – the better way of sending it will be in a
frank, sufficiently enveloped. Dyer will convey it to Rickmans, & then no
matter what may be the weight. It is hardly possible that he should lose a second charge of the same kind.
Kehama has been finished this month,
This is written hastily, – hereby to announce the arrival of the box – alas that it should not be the safe arrival! – I must not forget thanks from below stairs for the feathers. The children often talk of you, – when will she come again – is the constant question. – I shall be likely to see you in the course of next year. My Uncle has the living of Streatham given him, & will reside there. He gives up for it some Herefordshire preferment, & I do not think the exchange in any other degree advantageous, than that his <new> residence will be more conveniently situated for my visits than his old one.
I sent nobody to give you any other trouble than that of exhibiting the family groups. Nor have I heard who has taken
the pains of xxxx going to see them – except Bedford &
Neville White (Henrys
brother) – He thought the last years picture of myself a mor a better likeness than this.
I am afraid my letter did not reach John Dolignon,& remembered
intimacy & friends who are gone, – that I am sure he must have replied to it had it reached him.