1905. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, [started before and continued on 20 April 1811]⁠* 

You judge rightly respecting Brougham’s commission. [1]  A bad poem would not be worth translating, – & to translate a good one would take as much time as writing one myself. Profit is a thing never to be taken into account upon such subjects. I have done with writing verses for money, since I ceased to be Poet to the Morning Post at a guinea a week, [2]  – in which capacity I produced all those pieces of mine in the An. Anthology, [3]  & was better paid for them at that rate than for any other verses, either before or since.

If Brougham makes any direct application to me I will recommend <him> to Sir Abraham Elton’s son, [4]  – who is precisely the fit person for such an employment; he versifies exceedingly well, is fond of versifying, & prefers translation to original composition, thereon forming a just estimate of his own powers.

B. lives 18 miles from hence, but I think it more likely that he will write, than come over. I have passed an evening in his company at Edinburgh, & exchanged cards with him in the street at London, – so that he needs no introduction.

The Quarterly has not reached me. I had written a long article for it (with some help in statistics from a quarter which you would suspect on seeing it) – upon Pasley’s book, [5]  & after I had corrected the proofs, the fear of the Sicilian Embassador [6]  came over Gifford, & my article is at present in the hands of Croker to be trimmed to the taste of the Ministry & of the Queen of Naples. [7]  Part of it would have been made out of date by Massena’s retreat, [8]  so that I am not displeased at the delay, & when Crokers revision comes down to me I shall suit it to the present circumstances of the war. – The account of Luciens poem to which you allude is probably the same which appeared in the Courier; [9]  – the fable seemed to be according to the oldest & most approved receipt, & if the author has written it in French instead of Italian, he has a difficulty to contend with in the nature of the language, which I believe to be insuperable.

For Lucien Buonaparte himself I have a great respect, knowing the character which he bore in Rome, & believing him to be a true lover of liberty. [10]  I shall have an opportunity of seeing him on my way home from the South. We have an acquaintance at Ludlow, who after a two years residence at Keswick, settled there last summer, & is very desirous of seeing us whenever we make a progress like Q Elizabeth. [11]  Now Ludlow lies in a direct line from Bristol to Liverpool.

I am fully sensible of the inconvenience of enlarging the bulk of the Register, – which certainly no person can possibly feel so much as myself: but there was no remedy. [12]  There xxx <are> the materials, & it would never do to make them conform to the volume instead of the volume to them. I have got on strenuously since my last, & shall put the last strokes to it before we start.

Saturday 20 April.

I have a letter this evening from my Aunt Mary [MS missing] me that Mr T. Southey is gone after his brother John, having left part of his property to Mr W^m Oliver of Bristol, [13]  – & the rest to his man Tom. [14]  None of his relations are mentioned in the will. My poor Aunt is very much wounded, – & this is the only thing cause of regret.

No tidings of Brougham –

God bless you

RS.