1801. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, [started before and continued on] 13 August 1810 ⁠* 

The Italian Castanheda [1]  which I sent you contains the 4^th – 5 – 6 & 7^th books – I had been obliged to purchase a duplicate for the sake of the preceding volume with the three first books, & this was the reason why yours was returned. My own copy is a remarkably fine one, curiously half bound in xx embossed vellum with the date 1580 on the covers, & the name of some former possessor (a German), xxxx stamped in gold letters. Still I want the three last books of Castanheda. Of the first I have as you know the modern edition in two vol. [2]  The English translation [3]  xxxxx cannot be worth purchasing even at half its preposterous price, – or half the half, – for the original may be had any day at Lisbon for a quartinho. We still want three books.

Edith desires me to thank my Aunt for her offer, which is very gladly accepted. – The christening will take place as soon as xx <Edith> can be present at it. she is going on as well as we could wish, & the young Katharine also.

The Register [4]  is published at last. I do not know the names of any person concerned in it. The article wherein I am so liberally praised, & so civilly censured, is very showy, – but it is also abundantly shallow. [5]  As for Campbell who is extolled so highly I will undertake to convince any person who knows what good English is that he never wrote ten lines of it, – & that his verses have as little sense as English. Montgomery who is truly a man of genius is scarcely mentioned, – & Landor not at all, – tho Gebir [6]  has better stuff in it (in spite of all its obscurity) than any other poem which has appeared since the Paradise Lost. [7]  What is said of Scotts manner of narration, & of his costume, is just as appropriate to me, – & Scotts main merit is entirely overlooked, – that of conceiving what in the drama are called fine situations, – by which his poems are as much distinguished as Matthew Lewis’s [8]  plays. – There has been a review of Scotts Lady [9]  lately in the Christian Observer, in which they have taken occasion to pronounce a panygyric upon Thalaba, [10]  & their praise is luckily of that kind which is very likely to make the book in fashion among the Evangelicals. [11]  It often makes me smile to see from what unexpected quarters I receive praise or blame. The Bishop of Gloucester [12]  franks a letter to me last week & wrote x very handsome note within the cover to express his “respect for M^r S’s superior talents & honourable principles.”

Aug 13^th

I have a letter this evening from Ballantyne in which he tells me that the Proprietors of the Register, attributing much of its success to me, offer me 1/12 share in it. The outlay on each twelfth has been £209 – the profit for this vol. £80 – nearly 40 per cent, to be paid immediately by bills at a year. The outlay remains to go on with the succeeding volumes, as stock, & when any proprietor chuses to retire his share is purchased by the remaining partners at the original £209. – Nature never meant me to have anything to do with financial accounts, either of my own or the publics. I see plainly enough that the interest is not quite so great as is here represented, – but it is also true that the sale of a second edition would make it much greater. xx I have £150 in Ballantyne hands, – it will put me to my shifts to do without it for the next six months, but so I can shift, – xxxxx <it> seems an opportunity of advantage which ought not to be let slip. This may perhaps make me postpone my intended visit to London till spring March or April next, – it will leave me aground & there I must remain till spring-tide.

The Blackburnes [13]  departed this morning after a short stay in bad weather.

I wish much for the Santuario Marianno, [14]  & the Sermons of Antonio das Chagas. [15]  – the former contains some historical truth involved per accident in its tissue of lies, – the latter may possibly be as rich as Vieyras [16]  in incidental information. These books I should think might be got without difficulty at Lisbon. – You will see a summary of the Observador Portuguez [17]  in the next Quarterly. It contains a curious anecdote of the Sebastianistas. Junot thought them of so much consequence that be changed the name of the ship S. Sebastiaõ. [18] 

RS.