2885. Robert Southey to Miss Maynard, 23 December 1816

2885. Robert Southey to Miss Maynard, 23 December 1816⁠* 

Keswick, 23 Dec. 1816.

Dear Madam,

I am very much obliged to you for the manuscript music. The ears which nature has given me are of no use when music is the case, – but my eldest daughter has some allotment of a sense in which I am deficient, – & the tune seems to give pleasure to all who hear it.

Mrs Bonamy [1]  informed me that Mr M. Coates was, at that time, hopelessly ill. I have not seen him since I had the pleasure of meeting you at his table, – & probably he is no longer an inhabitant of this world! [2]  Of my other Bristol friends very <so> few are now remaining, that I do not think I shall ever have heart to set foot within my native city again. – Should you ever visit this part of England (the most beautiful part of it) it will give both Mrs Southey & myself great pleasure to show you the environs of Keswick.

Believe me my dear Madam

Your obliged

Robert Southey.

Notes

* Address: London, Twenty Sixth December, 1816 Miss Maynard, 6 Portland Place, Clifton, Bristol. Free.>. Rickman
MS: MS untraced; text is taken from the MS facsimile reproduced in George Birkbeck Hill, Talks About Autographs (London, 1896)
Previously published: George Birkbeck Hill, Talks About Autographs (London, 1896), pp. 92–94. BACK

[1] Unidentified. BACK

[2] Southey was wrong. His Bristol acquaintance, Matthew Mills Coates (c. 1769–1819), of the law firm Morgan and Coates, was still alive, dying on 26 July 1819. Southey had possibly met Miss Maynard during his visit to Bristol in 1808. BACK

Addressee

Maynard, Miss (dates unknown)

People mentioned

Fricker, Edith (1774–1837) (mentioned 1 time)
Southey, Edith May (1804–1871) (mentioned 1 time)

Places mentioned

Keswick (mentioned 1 time)
The Collected Letters of Robert Southey, Part Five
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