1863. Robert Southey to Mary Barker, 3 February 1811

1863. Robert Southey to Mary Barker, 3 February 1811 ⁠* 

Keswick. Feby 3. 1811.

Had I known where to have found you, I should have written some time ago, to enquire what ill cause had kept you so long silent, – tho in truth I foreboded what it was. – All I can now say is to beseech you, if the leaf should fall from the tree, [1]  – to set out for Keswick as soon as possible, – At all events let me hear of you, if it be only in a single line.

God bless you

RS.


Notes

* Address: To/ Miss Barker/ Penkridge/ Staffordshire.
Postmark: KESWICK/ 298
MS: MS untraced; text is taken from Robert Galloway Kirkpatrick, ‘The Letters of Robert Southey to Mary Barker From 1800 to 1826’ (unpublished PhD, Harvard, 1967), p. 348
Unpublished. BACK

[1] i.e. if Sir Edward Littleton should die. He survived another year. BACK

Places mentioned

Keswick (mentioned 2 times)