3490. Robert Southey to Isabel Southey [fragment], [31] May [1820]

3490. Robert Southey to Isabel Southey [fragment], [31] May [1820]⁠* 

Wednesday [MS obscured] May.

My dear Isabel

Yesterday I came back from Cambridge, & I have been on my feet from breakfast-time this morning, till this minute, when it is just four o clock, so that I have only time to write a few lines, that you may not be disappointed when the frank is opened. My table is covered with notes & proof-sheets, & I long one day more than another to run [MS missing] to Keswick & be at rest.

My Isabel would you wish me to wear a large wig when I am a Doctor? [1]  & to give you physic every day? & to become very grave & leave off being a comical Pappa? – Or would you rather that I should be as comical as before, & talk about pickles, & give rifflers to you & Kate & Bertha?

Kiss little Cuthbert for me, & tell him that Pappa loves him very much & will soon come back. [remainder of MS missing]

Notes

* Address: To/ Isabel Southey
MS: Beinecke Library, Osborn MSS File ‘S’, Folder 14171. AL; 3p.
Unpublished.
Dating note: Dating from Southey’s accounts of his movements. He left Cambridge on 30 May 1820; see Southey to Katherine Southey, 28 May 1820, Letter 3486. BACK

[1] Southey was awarded a Doctorate of Civil Law by the University of Oxford on 14 June 1820. BACK

Addressee

Southey, Isabel (1812–1826)

People mentioned

Southey, Katharine (‘Kate’) (1810–1864) (mentioned 1 time)
Southey, Bertha (1809–1877) (mentioned 1 time)
Southey, Charles Cuthbert (1819–1888) (mentioned 1 time)

Places mentioned

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