2327. Robert Southey to [Wade Browne] [fragment], 11 November 1813 ⁠* 

London. Nov. 11. 1813

My dear Sir

Still you see I am in this city, & you will I am sure, forgive me, if after so long & for the most part, compulsory an absence, I travel home by the straightest road & the quickest conveyance, instead of extending the time as I originally hoped to do by a series of visits thro Shropshire & Wales to Liverpool. – I am as homesick as a Swiss [1]  (or a school boy) & long equally for regular employment & for rest.

Today I am to make my appearance at the Levee. [2]  Of my appointment to the Laureatship you will seen some truth mixed with much falsehood in the newspapers. The real statement is this. On my arrival I found most unexpectedly that upon Pyes [3]  death Mr Croker had asked the succession for me, & the Prince had granted it saying, he understood I had written well in defence of the Spanish cause. Meantime Lords Liverpool & Hertford (the latter of whom has the situation in his gift) consulted together & agreeing that Scott was the most proper person, wrote & offered it to him. The Prince when he learnt this was angry, & said he had given it to me & I should have it; Croker very properly then said that he was a friend of Scott as well as of mine, – that we also were friends – & that it would be equally unpleasant to all three if the matter were not suffered to rest.

Scott who knew nothing of all this declined the appointment, thinking that the two professional situations which he enjoyed to the amount of 1500 a year rendered it unfit for him to accept one of the very offices which seem to have intended for men of letters exclusively. [4]  He urged that it should be offered to me, & wrote to me in the handsomest terms, I hardly know how to express my sense of the manner in which this was done. [5]  This result had seemed to me so far probable, that I had thought seriously how it would become me to act. So I wrote to Croker saying that the time was past when I could write verses upon demand upon any subject – but that if I were permitted upon great public occasions to write, or to be silent, as the spirit might move, in that case the office would become a mark of honourable distinction which I should gladly accept. Of course it was not for me to propose terms to the Prince, & I left it to him to determine discover how this sort of arrangement could be made. [6] 

The salary was originally 100 marks. It was raised for B Jonson [7]  to 100£ & a tierce of Spanish Canary Wine. The wine has been wickedly commuted for £26 – & the various deductions reduce the whole to £90. There was nothing to tempt me in such a salary, but in thinking over the matter it occurred that there was a way in which it might be made of great & permanent advantage. Accordingly by adding about 12£ annually I have ensured my life for 3000£, & thus converted it into this substantial legacy for my family. And this thought will make me even write the odes with good will if they should be called for.

At all events I purpose preparing a lyric poem upon the present state of public affairs, as soon as I reach home, – so that something for the Court Fiddlers may be ready if called for. And my intention is to publish it with an Epistle to the Prince Regent in blank verse saying something about the office, – about those who have held if, about myself, & finally of the manner in which it becomes him to be addressed & me to address him. [8]