1774. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, 2 May 1810
1774. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, 2 May 1810 *
My dear Danvers
I have been waiting some time to get a ten pound Bank of England Bill, – & this not being the Laking season the article is a scarce one. To day however Janson [1] has supplied me, & you have here the half inclosed. [2] Direct to Durham to acknowledge its receipt, – we set out to visit the Doctor on Monday next, & I xx will take the other half with me to be sent from thence as soon as I hear this has reachd you.
The box arrived about a month ago, not safe – I am sorry to say. For want of a cord it had entirely fallen to pieces, – some of the books came xx up loose in the cart, & some I believe have been lost upon the way. Those which have arrived are the Hist. of the Counts of Thoulouse. [3] Hist. of Charles 6. [4] – Estes Journey, [5] – the Joan of Arc book, [6] – the Prælia Anglorum [7] – the Enchiridion. [8]
If any have been lost I am afraid their value can not be recovered from the carrier, because the box was not properly secured, being far too slight to carry any weight, without a cord. The letterings answer so well that xx x xxxx you must not be surprised to receive a second packet of labels for the same purpose.
When you mentiond in a former letter that your spirits were greatly depressed by an expected misfortune which you could not then explain, I was of course anxious to guess what it could be, & soon divined xxx what xxx proved to be the true cause. I was led to this supposition because it evidently did not relate to your own concerns, & as evidently to the worldly concerns of some person with whom you were very intimate. But I was not the less grieved at finding this opinion verified.
You have I hope received my Brazil [9] – whether it will afford you much amusement or not I am doubtful. King I think will find some things that will interest him in it. I am very very very busy, – finishing off my Register [10] work before our journey Eastward, besides which I have to compleat & arrange the notes to Kehama, [11] the poem being almost printed. You will I hope receive it by <in> the course of next month.
God bless you. I shall write from Durham with the remaining half note. Tom goes with us. All well, – but xx cold weather is just come back again after extraordinary heat.
Yrs very truly & affectionately
RSouthey.
May 2. 1810
Notes
* Address: [in another hand] London May nine <put in North/ ten> 1810/
To/Charles Danvers Esqr/Bristol/ CWWilliams Wynn
Postmark: AMA/ 9/ 1810
Endorsement: 1810/ 2nd May
MS: British Library, Add MS 30928. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished. BACK
[2] i.e. half of the banknote – a secure way of sending money in the post, by tearing banknotes in half and sending the two halves separately. BACK
[3] Guillaume Catel (1590–1626), Histoire des Comtes de Tolose (1623), no. 683 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s Library. BACK
[4] P. A. La Lande (dates unknown), Histoire de l’Empereur Charles VI (1743); no. 1591 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[5] Charles Este (1753–1829), A Journey in the Year 1793: Through Flanders, Brabant, and Germany (1795); no. 1010 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[6] Possible Nicolas Lenglet Du Fresnoy (1674–1755), Histoire de Jeanne d’Arc (1775); no. 868 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[7] Christopher Ocland (d. in or after 1590; DNB), Anglorum Praelia (1582); no. 2051 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[8] Martin Luther (1483–1546), Enchiridion Piarum Precautionum, Cum Passionale (1543); no. 1769 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
