2098. Robert Southey to Mary Barker, 20 May 1812

2098. Robert Southey to Mary Barker, 20 May 1812 ⁠* 

Keswick. May 20. 1812.

Mr. Lister’s [1]  letter has just reached me. Nothing but your incessant care could have delayed this event so long, — Daily & hourly as it was to be looked for. Under such circumstances when the evil arrives, the first thought of consolation is that it is over. [2] 

Write as soon as you are able, & come here as soon as you can possible quit the scene.

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text is taken from Robert Galloway Kirkpatrick, ‘The Letters of Robert Southey to Mary Barker From 1800 to 1826’ (unpublished PhD, Harvard, 1967), p. 399
Unpublished. BACK

[1] Thomas Lister (1773–1828) of Armitage Park, near Lichfield. He was a lawyer and landowner, who in his youth had been a writer and protégée of Anna Seward. BACK

[2] Sir Edward Littleton died at Teddesley on 18 May 1812 at the age of eighty six. BACK

Addressee

Barker, Mary (c. 1780–1853)

Places mentioned

Keswick (mentioned 1 time)
The Collected Letters of Robert Southey, Part Four
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