3647. Robert Southey to Messrs Longman and Co., 7 March 1821
3647. Robert Southey to Messrs Longman and Co., 7 March 1821*
Keswick, March 7. 1821.
Dear Sir,
Among the numerous applications which are made to me for assistance, possible or impossible, upon all kinds of subjects, one has just arrived on behalf of a poor compositor, [1] who believes that a recommendation from you to any of your printers may obtain him employment, and thereby save his family from beggary and ruin. His story is simply this: that, having been employed twenty years in one office, he has been discharged in consequence of the introduction of the stereotype; [2] and because he is not known in any other office, he cannot get employment.
How far any patronage of this kind is in your power, I of course am ignorant; but I cannot do otherwise than thus state the matter to you. If you can thus assist one who is represented to me as a worthy man, I dare say you will, and in that case I will beg you to communicate your kind intention by a line to either of the two Westalls, [3] who are both very much interested about him. His name is Christie. Believe me,
Yours very truly,
ROBERT SOUTHEY.
Notes
* MS: MS untraced; text is taken from
John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert
Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856)
Previously published: John Wood
Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols
(London, 1856), ), III, pp. 234–235. BACK
[2] A form of printing that used a solid metal plate of type, rather than a page forme containing individual pieces of metal type. It thus saved printers time and money. BACK
[3] The artists Richard Westall (1765–1836; DNB), and his half-brother William Westall. BACK