1968. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, [c. 18] October 1811 ⁠* 

‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil!” [1]  – To live in London would be to me so great <an> evil, xxxx that <it> would taint all my enjoyments; – & to have the usufruct of the Museum Library is the greatest temptation which could possibly have been offered to me. [2]  You have seen my letter to Turner, [3]  which was broken off last night by Dr Bells arrival. I should else have said something more about the office of Historiographer [4]  on which I have fixed my eye. It is not to be supposed that I could have that & the Mus. at the same time, & it cannot be doubted that that is the best thing of the two, for tho the salary is the same & there are no &cs, there is likewise no duty expected, & no confinement. Besides the title would be of direct advantage to me. Now of this I think myself tolerably secure whenever M. Dutens furnishes a conclusion to his Memoirs. [5]  Lord Lonsdale will ask it for me, – which is enough if things remain as they are. On the other side Wynn would obtain it.

400£ a year, if liable to the same deductions as my pension, which I suppose it is, is frittered down to 280. the labour of three hours a day, required for cataloguing, if given to the booksellers, would produce twice that sum. It is not that cataloguing would be unpleasant work. – far from it, – xxx that kind of desultory employment which is as good as idleness: but considering the objects which I have before me I ought not to allow time for any such (comparatively) unworthy employment. Even now I find it necessary to abstain from reading many things because there is not time for it. Did my ways & means afford it, I would give up the Quarterly for the same reason, tho there it is that I am best paid & that I obtain most reputation. – so ill are these rewards apportioned in our present state of things! – But it cannot be doubted that it is better to write even such miscellanies as these, than to employ the same time in cataloguing, & three hours a day throughout the year, is nearly if not entirely as much as the Review & the Register cost me. Granted that a few years would get thro the Catalogue I have not a few years to spare. – You know what a series of historical work <labour> lies before me, – if it be compleated it will place me far above all the historians whom this country has produced, & I must not let any thing which can be avoided impede the completion, from this time forward.

I am of course strongly attached to this place of residence, – which you would not wonder at if you had seen it. Nevertheless a less lovely country would satisfy me, but it must be country, for my own sake & that of the children. I cannot bear to confine either them or myself within the walls of London. As for the Mus. Gardens & such other places they would be to us like a sod to xxx <a> Lark in a cage.

I would willingly come nearer to you, so as to be within an easy days distance, & to this I look forward. The first term of my lease expires in five years. perhaps by that time it may be in my power to remove. Meantime however a yearly journey for myself is nothing. A month in town & a week in travelling I can well spare.

I am very much obliged both to xxx Turner & Rickman. Had not you been so near London the decision would have cost me nothing. As it is – I wish the choice had not been offered – because it costs me as much disquietude thus to have decided.

Our love to Mrs H & the Man.

RS.