1754. Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 6 March 1810 ⁠* 

Keswick. March 6. 1810

My dear Tom

Another book of Kehama [1]  has been cruising after you for this month past & ought ere this to have found you out. I have sent off two more to night, that Bedford may see them, a journey to London will do them no harm, & if they do not reach you at Durham they will follow you from thence by virtue of Mr Percevals sign manual. You are right enough in not liking the Snake battle. [2]  – I can find very good reasons why it should be liked, – but the truth is I am not very fond of it myself in spite of those reasons. As for the resemblance to Madoc [3]  the objection will obviously be x made, & yet it is so obviously unreasonable that I altogether disregard it, there being nothing in common except the name of snake, – if it were worth while I might turn him into a great cuttle fish with nine tails to & so destroy the likeness. That book goes off to night for Edinburgh – Ballantyne I think will come to it in something less than a month. – certainly not in less than three weeks. – If you find your way here in the course of the next fortnight I will talk of over the scene in the first walk we take, & then it is ten to one but something some radical alteration may be struck out in time to supply its place: for tho the battle is well-managed & all circumstances kept skilfully in view, certes I do not like it myself

You will find upon comparing the printed with the mss copy that of the altered passages some things which appear alterations & not improvements, have been made necessary by others which really are improvements: & others (that which you have instanced is an example) made <became> necessary xx when it was determined to cast the poem in rhyme, which you know was not wholly determined till it was resumed with a resolution of going thro with it.

And so after promising to write from Bristol, & after your ghostly silence, – you had the conscience to be half vexd at that page & half of my letter! Ah Goblin! When I wanted to hear news of Charke of Antwerp, [4]  & of whom you had seen at Bristol, & of my Aunt Mary & of Mr T. Southey, & of D Duardos, & of my new Aunt, & what her christian name is, & how old she is, & half a hundred other things; – there comes your Goblinship with a notion that my Uncles letter contained all the information you could possibly send! Ah Goblin!

A word to Sir Domine Doctor. What time in April does the General Gallic Engagement take place? [5]  I hope not early in the month, for I am afraid my hands will not be clear till after the middle. Let him ask Dr Gooch if he has ever seen Quarles’s Poem of Argalus & Parthenia, [6]  for if he have not I will put x mine in my trunk.

The bottle letter is oiled. By all means send an account to the newspapers. [7] 

For a Monument in the Church of Bishops Lydiard [8] 

I was sorry when the Col. askd me for an Epitaph, but am not so now that this is written.

Your way here x must be by Newcastle & Carlisle. The mail reaches Carlisle about 11 at night. You may get on by stage the next day either to Penrith or Wigton the latter will be a new road for you, & preferable because it is a very fine approach to these Lakes. –

God bless you

RS

My love to Mary – we shall bring her niece, – who is now old enough to enjoy the journey, & all I think the better for change of air