3160. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 8 July 1818

3160. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 8 July 1818⁠* 

Wednesday 8 July.

Hurrah! your serene Highness!

Murray may advertise as soon as he thinks expedient a Letter to Henry Brougham Esqre. M P. [1]  from R.S. –

I hope you like the motto which I have chosen – it is

Fronti nulla fides. [2] 

I shall probably be about a week in finishing it, after which I must see Wordsworth, for the sake of learning a few facts, by way of embellishments & taking counsel with him. Of course I shall {xxxxxxxxxx} polish it, & round it, & point it &c. before it is thro the press, & the MS shall pass thro your hands viâ Giphardi.

Twill be a Tickler.

God bless you

RS.


Notes

* Address: To/ G. C. Bedford Esqre/ Exchequer/ Westminster
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 11 JY 11/ 1818
Endorsement: Rd 8 July 1818
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. d. 47. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK

[1] The Courier had reported on 4 July 1818, that Brougham, campaigning for the parliamentary seat of Westmorland against the candidates favoured by Wordsworth’s patron the Earl of Lonsdale, had, when he spoke at the hustings at Appleby on 30 June, attacked Southey and Wordsworth. Southey was dissuaded from publishing the retort that he announced here. Part of it finally appeared as a ‘Postscript’ to the second edition of Carmen Triumphale (London, 1821), pp. 45–53. BACK

[2] ‘No reliance can be placed on appearance’ from Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (1st–2nd century AD), Satires, Satire 2, line 8. BACK