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British Library, Add MS 30927. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), II, pp. 281–283 [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.
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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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Huzza! Givez-vous me joy My Lord Thomas Sir Admiral! huzza! I have finished my third volume,amen’d the
volume. And never was I more glad after a long sermon on a cold day, to come to those dear words “Now to God the father” – & “the
Peace of God”that the sweetest to me in the whole
church-service, & which I shall love as long as I live. – Sarah! don’t look
grave! tis not a very sinful confession, – & in my conscience I believe that you must xxx very often <have had> a
sneaking kindness for the words yourself.
Well – Ista feita,xx tomorrow with fresh spirits to something new, & thus the world goes with me. You may have seen by the newspapers
that the old Frenchman is dead, & that he might as well have lived till doomsday for any good that has fallen to me by his
departure.xx one of his Chaplains – so that good Ship the
Historiographer is given to Stanier Clarke, – a pains-taking man & so far fit for it, – but a most extraordinary blockhead & so
far unfit. My comfort is that it is only worth half as much as I was led to expect. Lord Lonsdale applied for me, so did Croker without my knowledge
& in the most zealous manner, he went to Ld Liverpool, to Ryder
Tomorrow I go tooth and nail to the Quarterly, for the purpose if possible of making our men in power see the
xxx imminent danger in which our throats are at this moment from the Ludditesxxxx the
genuine offspring of the dragons teeth which Burdett & the opposition have so long
been sewing. Call this a fortnights work. – I know not when Danvers comes –
whether with Martha from Liverpool on Saturday next, or a fortnight after
her.
Friday.
Most likely Danvers will not be here till he has past a fortnight at Liverpool, – where he was to arrive last Wednesday. here he will probably stay a week or ten days & we shall be something less than a week reaching you. One day to Carlisle one to Gilsland one to Newcastle. We shall dine with Losh the next day if we find him, & perhaps walk on to sleep at Shields. See Tynemouth, cross the Tyne, see Jarrow & get to Sunderland the fifth day, – perhaps you will meet us at Durham. – Of course I shall apprize you of our movements as soon as they are fixed. I hope to leave my cold somewhere upon the road, it is at this time about a month old.
The Registerst sheet
is now before me, there are about four more to come. & the volume will as nearly xx as possible hit the publishers print
of perfection in size. Next year the business of South America & of the Cortes will materially lengthen my labours – for which I
must make room for curtailing the debates. Bullion is a happy subject for curtailment.
Nelson
Love to Sarah & a kiss to my niece. Kate is
arrived at months of discretion enough to enjoy the story of what she calls ‘naughty Green’this <such an> act, for that he was so I conclude from the nature of the present which he
made to Sarah. I never tell <sing> the story
<song> without thinking of that present (& sometimes indeed mentioning it xx in the song, – ) but Sarah when she looks at the present must not always think of
Bim-bim-bim-bim-bim-bim-bom-bell.
I suppose I shall reach xxxxx xx xxx xxx xxxx xxx Durham in the second week of July.
I have a message from Edith who requests that she may have a full, true & particular account of all the goings on, talking & walking, ways & customs of her niece Margaret.
We are in daily expectation of Miss Barker. You have seen Sir Edwards death – he has left her 1500£ in money, & 400£ a year
free from all legacy & property tax. What a provoking thing – White’s Betsey