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British Library, Add MS 30928. Not previously published.
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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When you see Clarkson on his return ask him to tell you how a
Gentleman from Bristol came with his wife & family to his house upon the strength of having dined with him at the Anchor Society’s
dinner,throughout, not baiting his horse or
his family at the usual halting place, & how he eat up a large plum-cake before Mr <or Mrs> Clarkson a came in, which the servant produced because the children were crying for hunger, & how the
Gentleman asked questions & was very penurious, & the wife was little & crooked & ugly, & still more penurious than
the husband, & how she quarrelled about half a pound of cherries in the streets of Penrith, – the Gentlemans name being
Coates.
I have been some days from home – as thus – Tuesday to Grasmere where I found Clarkson & proceeded with him to Lloyds. Wednesday perambulating that neighbourhood – Thursday over the mountains to C’s. at Ulswater – Friday seeing that place, & to day home – in all 71 miles, which my legs have very dutifully performed, with no other sufferance than natural stiffness. this has been a highly pleasurable expedition – & I have learnt more of the arts of the Negroes from C.s. collection of their ornaments &c than all my books had taught me. Poor man, he has now heart to look at them once more, & to talk of their sufferings & emancipation.
My letters with its inclosures went to Mrs Smith
punctually to my promise, – & will probably induce a reply, as I offered my services when they come into the North, in looking out
lodgings for them, if they will stay as long as they ought to stay to see the country well, & in directing their route, & in
showing them such things as might else escape their notice.
The wine is very good both in literature as well as in trade a mans
xxxx name is good for nothing unless it be known that he has some capital. – I must draw nearer London that is certain,
for I can always there have as much silent money-getting work as my necessities require, without those inconvenient delays, & heavy
expence of carriage which make weighty objections to this situation, even if this suited me better. As far as I can see before me my
wisest plan will be to gallop on with history as fast as possible & then cross the seas. by the time of my return the profits of
these running works will surely be enough to furnish a house, & then I will settle within a mornings ride of town. My regular work
is first & foremost before all others to write these pages of history – such pages as when printed will extend honestly to five in
quarto. a year at this rate will well nigh finish my materials.
Cottle writes me word of Mrs Newtons
I have begun a letter to King to beg a drawing from him for one of
the vignettes
Moses is quite happy with his map. He grows up as unlike all other boys as he was unlike all other children. It is very diverting to hear him talk of his children whenever any thing displeases him. when he is called to his book ‘well I am determined that my children shall never read when they have not a mind to,’ &c &c – his children are never to learn to spell – never to be washd – never to be denied any thing they want. When Derwent offends him he shakes him by the arm saying ‘you little ridiculous fellow.’
– I continue well – but still at times vexed with these weak eyes. somebody to walk with in the morning & somebody to talk to in the evening would relieve them.