3111. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 4 April 1818

3111. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 4 April 1818⁠* 

My dear G.

I trouble you with this MS. because I have no other means of franking it to town. Send it for me to Longmans, or hand it over for that purpose to Osiris. It will make two octavo volumes, – about 500 pages each, –  [1]  & exceedingly curious it will be.

Oh my books my books! I am sweating at the apprehension that Prince Est. will be gone before they arrive! [2] 

God bless you – in haste for Westall is below

Saturday 4 April.


Notes

* Address: G. C. B.
Endorsements: 4 April 1818; 17 Ap 4 April 1818
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. d. 47. AL; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK

[1] Southey’s The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (1820). The two octavo volumes were of 512 and 622 pages each. BACK

[2] The consignment of books Southey had bought in Brussels in 1817. To secure its safe passage, Southey had mobilised Prince Pál Antal Esterházy de Galántha (1786–1866), Austrian nobleman and Ambassador to Britain 1815–1842. BACK

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