2865. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 18 November 1816
2865. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 18 November 1816*
18. Nov. 1816
My dear Grosvenor [1]
Pay Hyde when the money is forthcoming, – & keep the surplus for future use. [2]
We manufacture Scrap volumes in this family with great success; – that is to say books of newspaper patchwork. I have one set pasted upon blue paper, – & my Governess has now another in hand upon the same paper as the ms of Roderick. [3] Now I want you to procure for me two quires of pink paper – such as the covers of magazines are printed upon, & two quire of green paper of the same inferior quality; the size that of the which makes the common octavo. The reason why as follows – Books of this kind would sell at great price in a sale, – for which reason it is proper to make sundry sets rather than one long one. But I make them for my own use primarily. & I page them, – which enables me to make memoranda of references for use; & this is facilitated by having the sets of different colours, – to wit – the blue – the olive – the pink & the green. And two quires of each will make three volumes of each.
The Grand Murray has displeased me. He offered 100 £ for six stated articles, – of which the Works on England are one. And last night he send me thro Gifford a draft for a hundred guineas as payment for both my articles in this last numbers. [4] I have therefore thought proper to remind him that this is not the price. The payment may be enough, or more than enough, – but it x he is no loser by my labour, & I must not be dealt with in this manner. It depends upon the his answer whether I do any thing more for the next number or not. If not – my time will be more worthily employed.
Will the Spa fields meeting [5] awaken those who sleep? – I am glad to see these fellows play the fool so outrageously.
God bless you
RS.
Notes
* Endorsement: 18 Novr. 1816./ Scrap Books & Remonstrance/ with Murray
MS: Bodleian
Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 25. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[2] Bedford, a civil servant, received on Southey’s behalf his stipend as Poet Laureate. Here Southey wishes the bill of Hyde (d. 1820), his London tailor, to be paid. BACK
[3] Southey’s epic poem Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814). There were two bound manuscripts of the poem: one was bound in blue marbled paper (now Keswick Museum MS 224.1), and the other in brown marbled paper (now Keswick Museum MS 224.2). BACK
[4] Quarterly Review, 15 (July 1816) had been published on 12 November 1816. It contained Southey’s review of Domingo Badia y Leblich (1766–1818), Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, Between the years 1803 and 1807 (1816) at 299–345 and ‘Works on England’ at 537–574. BACK
