3705. Robert Southey to [Unknown Correspondent], 21 July 1821
3705. Robert Southey to [Unknown Correspondent], 21 July 1821*
Keswick. 21 July. 1821
My dear Sir
I send you credentials to New Lanark, & hope you may find Mr Owen [1] there. His establishment tho singular in its kind, has very little to do with his system: & in his system he forgets to provide the absolute Owen who is to regulate by his will & wisdom the Utopia of quadrangles. [2] But there is in his views a great deal that is practicable, & which will make its way into practise.
I am going about the 6th of next month to Netherhall, for ten days or a fortnight, – not for a longer time. It will vex me if your transit should take place during my absence.
The Ladies elder & younger [3] desire to be kindly rememberd
Yrs very truly
Robert Southey.
Notes
[1] Robert Owen (1771–1858; DNB), manager and owner of the mills and model community at New Lanark in Scotland, 1799–1825. BACK
[2] Owen had urged the establishment of ‘villages of union’ comprised of 500–1500 people. Situated in the countryside, these would be capable of producing their own food and manufactured goods. The new villages would be built as a large quadrangle or parallelogram, with public buildings in the middle surrounded by private quarters for individual families. See Owen’s Report to the Committee of the Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor (1817). BACK
[3] Edith Southey, and her sisters Sara Coleridge and Mary Lovell; and Edith May, Bertha, Isabel and Kate Southey, and their cousin Sara Coleridge. BACK