2894. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 6 January 1817
2894. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 6 January 1817*
6 Jany 1817
My dear G.
One pair of pantaloons: – My distress for which has already been announced to you. [1]
If rectum should be wrong instead of right, the sin must rest upon you &, Pope Gifford. Certes it was a great sacrifice to strike out such a sentence, – an instance, as I take it, of heroic virtue, Mr Bedford [2]
To day has brought me a box of papers from the Docksters new acquaintance Mr Sydenham. – most important peninsular matter. [3] It has brought me also a large parcel from Artaxerxes, wherein is the first No of the Correspondent. [4] I have done little more than cut it open, as yet, but I think it will satisfy you that the Editor is the most zealous of all my cooperators, & sees things both at home & abroad precisely, or as nearly as possible in the same point of view that I do.
The sequel of the paper for Gifford was sent off on Saturday, – it contains wholesome bitters for the ascarides [5]
God bless you
RS
Notes
* Address: To/ G. C. Bedford Esqre/ 9. Stafford Row/ Buckingham Gate/ London
Stamped:
KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 8 JA 8/ 1817
Endorsement: 6 Janry 1817/ Pantaloons & Wellesley Papers
MS: Bodleian Library, MS
Eng. Lett. d. 47. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[2] Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 27 December 1816 (Letter 2888) had included a passage for a forthcoming article ‘Parliamentary Reform’, Quarterly Review, 16 (October 1816), 225–278 (published 11 February 1817), which he was so sure would be cut out that he placed it in brackets. BACK
[3] Benjamin Sydenham (1777–1828), a former soldier in India and friend of Marquess Wellesley. He was Commissioner of the Board of Excise 1809–1819. Henry Herbert Southey had made his acquaintance in Ramsgate whilst treating the Marquess. Sydenham provided Southey with the papers of his brother, Thomas Sydenham (1780–1816), another ex-Indian soldier who served in Spain 1811–1812 and as Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon 1814–1816, to assist with Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). BACK
[4] In 1817 a new journal was launched, published by Longmans and edited by John Stoddart (1773–1856; DNB), who had in 1816 been dismissed from the editorship of the Times for the intemperate Toryism of his articles. It was entitled The Correspondent; Consisting of Letters, Moral, Political, and Literary, between Eminent Writers in France and England; and designed by presenting to each Nation a Faithful Picture of the Other, to Enlighten both to their True Interests, promote a Mutual Good Understanding between them, and render Peace the Source of a Common Prosperity. Southey contributed a sketch of the life of John Wesley (1703–1791; DNB) to the first two numbers (1 (1817), 26–48; and 2 (1817), 157–176. However, the Correspondent lasted only one further number. Stoddart became the editor of a new ministry-supported paper, The New Times (1817–1828). BACK
