3551. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 10 November 1820
3551. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 10 November 1820*
My dear Grosvenor
I have written to Dr Bell, thro whom the whole negociation has passed, & who instructed me in what form to draw, & for what sum. [1] On my part, (as you no doubt will have concluded) there has been no mistake. Nor do I suppose that there can have been any other, than the erratum of writing four for five in the letter of advice. A very disagreable one certainly & which <would> vex me sorely, if I had acted either with haste or indiscretion. – There seems a fatality attending all the drafts that I have ever had occasion to send you. – However this matter will soon be rectified
God bless you
RS.
10 Nov. 1820.
Notes
* Address: To/ G. C. Bedford Esqre/ 9. Stafford Row
Endorsements: 10 Novr. 1820; 10 Novr. 1820
MS: Bodleian Library, MS
Eng. Lett. d. 47. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Southey had been paid for writing an ‘account’ of David Pike Watts (1754–1816), a fabulously rich wine merchant and philanthropist, who had been an important supporter of Andrew Bell’s educational schemes and had owned the Storrs Hall estate on Windermere. He was also the uncle of the painter John Constable (1776–1837; DNB). The work had been commissioned by Watts’s daughter and heiress, Mary Watts-Russell (1792–1840), who had married, in 1811, another heir to a business fortune, Jesse Watts-Russell (1786–1875), MP for Gatton 1820–1826. They lived at Ilam Hall in Staffordshire and had eight children. See Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 27 October 1820, Letter 3544. BACK