2765. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 22 April 1816

2765. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 22 April 1816*
Monday 22 April. 1816
My dear G.
My last letter will have shown you that my mind was in a proper state, & engaged in wholesome activity. [1] As yet I do not perceive that I have gained strength, but I am certainly losing none. I walk daily as much as is good for me, & not more. And I never was more capable of mental exertion, nor more disposed to it. Be assured that my mind will never be suffered to prey upon itself.
I hope you have given my message to Gifford: he may rely upon having the article in time, – (that is that it shall not delay the number beyond the first week in May) – & I think he will not regret having waited for it. [2]
Ediths occupations do not withdraw her thoughts from sorrow, like mine. But no woman could behave with more equanimity & fortitude.
God bless you
RS.
Notes
* Address: To/ G. C. Bedford Esqre/ Exchequer/ Westminster
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Endorsement: 22. April 1816/ Recd 25
MS: Bodleian
Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 25. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] See Southey to Bedford, 20 April 1816, Letter 2763. Southey's son Herbert had died on 17 April. BACK
[2] In his letter of 20 April 1816 (Letter 2763), Southey had requested that Bedford ask Gifford to make space in the next issue of the Quarterly Review for Southey’s review of a series of memoirs of the French Revolutionary wars, including the royalist rising in La Vendée, 1793–1796. The article appeared in the Quarterly Review, 15 (April 1816), 1–69. BACK