3156. Robert Southey to William Peachy, 20 June 1818⁠* 

Keswick. 20 June. 1818

My dear Sir

I should have written ere {this} to express my thanks for the Lamp, if I had known in what direction to aim a flying shot. It arrived safely, & written directions came with it, sufficiently explicit, f I dare say, for its use. My daughter Edith could not rest till she had discovered the whole art & mystery of the mechanism. As yet it has not been lighted for two reasons; – first because we have had no darkness since it arrived, – that is, the evenings have been so long, that we have needed no artificial light till supper. And secondly (which reason xxx had it been given first might have swallowed up all the others like Aarons rod) [1]  there has till this day been no oil in Keswick which the shopkeepers could recommend, – this very day some is expected, & as soon as it arrives we shall certainly have an illumination. Pray make my best acknowledgements to M^rs Peachy for this favour. The thing itself (as well as the invention) is certainly a beautiful one.

Would Miss Barkers house [2]  suit M^rs Neave [3] ? or that which Cap^t Gee had at Rydale? [4]  either of these may be had. Gee is at Bowness. M^r Wilberforce has written to me about a house for the middle of August, & Calvert is willing to let him have his, [5]  – I am daily expecting the answer to this proposal.

Keswick is not altogether without news. They talk of lowering the Lake two feet, by clearing the bed of the river from the place where it leaves the lake to its junction with the Greta. Secondly – Monk Hall [6]  has been on fire this morning, & just saved from destruction & thirdly we have had a person here, who tho he is now acting the swindler is both by education, manners & profession a gentleman, & may perhaps not be altogether unknown to you. His name is May, [7]  & he practised as a Physician at Taunton several years ago, & afterwards I believe at Truro. This said D^r May wrote me a note from the Royal Oak, [8]  saying that he was well acquainted with my brother D^r S. [9]  & requesting permission to call upon me that I might give him directions as to the best method of seeing the country. This was late in the evening, & I accordingly invited him to breakfast the next day. My brother has never seen him, & there was no necessity of introducing himself with a lie, because he had seen M^rs Coleridge formerly at Stowey, & prescribed for her. [10]  He dined with Sir F. Morsehead that day, whose father he had known at Verdun. [11]  He talked incessantly, & very amusingly of his foreign adventures, – but not a word of the country, – & I understood that his head quarters were Kendal. Some ten days afterwards he returned & took lodgings at John Aireys [12] , & endeavoured to get into practise by offering to visit Edmondsons patients. Among others he went to M^rs Gritton [13]  who was then very near death; – he refused a fee, – but returned to Kendal, found out Grittons son, [14]  told him his mother was dying, & that it was of the utmost importance he should attend her, – made the poor fellow bring him over in a chaise, tho the woman (as he well knew would be the case) was in articulo mortis [15]  when he arrived, – accepted two guineas which Gritton had sent him after the visit, & extorted from him by a note three more. Airey soon got rid of him because he called up the family to light his fire at four o clock; & it was soon learnt that he was living by his sleights & had a heavy bill at Lowood. However he got shirts & cravatts from Miss Crosthwaite [16] , & inexpressibles from John Cockbaine [17] , making John procure the cloth, & Miss C. have the shirts made. He then gave out that he was going to Buttermere, locked the empty drawers at his lodgings (at Cap^t Scotts) [18]  & as no one would trust him with horse or carriage, (for he was in debt at the Royal Oak) set off on foot, with two boys, each carrying a trunk. It was not long before Scott discovered that he had decamped, & then young Jackson of the Oak [19]  set out on hors one horse to pursue him, & M^rs Cockbaine [20]  on another; but they went separately.

They learnt that he took the Penrith road, but could find no tidings of him at Threlkeld, however they guest rightly & pursued to Materdale. Jackson came up with him first, & got from him three pounds, being about half his debt; M^rs Cockbaine overtook him at Pooley Bridge, & demanded the money or the – inexpressibles. Would not this be a rich subject for Wilkie? [21]  She would follow him, she said, wher[MS torn] he went, & keep by his side, till he either restored the inexpressibles, or paid for them. The Doctor, I believe, has been a man of gallantry in his time, – but he was not desirous of M^rs Cockbaine for a companion, & with a very ill grace, he paid her one guinea out of £ 2–5/^s which was Johnnys demand; & the Virago returned, in a soaking rain, as stiff as you may suppose after a ride of nearly forty miles, – but triumphant. What is become of him is not known; – but some part of his conduct bears marks of insanity. It is manifest that some how or other, he had blasted his character before he came here, & it would not surprize me to hear that he had finished his career by suicide.

You will see that Sir F. Vane [22]  stands for Cockermouth, & that the County is to be contested, – we know not as yet by whom. Should this contest be a severe one it will bring Senhouse down again. The effect of Hunts standing for Westminster is amusing enough, every vote which he gets is one lost to Burdett, & therefore half as good as if it were given for Sir M. Maxwell, or Romilly, [23]  – in such a contest as this one must even wish for Romillys success: tho for my own part I would rather give a vote for Major Cartwright thin as thinking him if he were in the house, far the least mischievous of the two.

The country has been in its utmost beauty, & we have now some refreshing rain. M^rs S. & her sisters [24]  join with me in kind remembrance to M^rs Peachy. M^rs L. continues miserably weak & ill. The rest are going on well; & I am expecting ere long my Acta Sanctorum (52 vol. folio) [25]  – a great event in my life.

Believe me my dear Sir

Yrs faithfully

Robert Southey.