3770. Robert Southey to [Samuel Holworthy], [24 December] 1821
3770. Robert Southey to [Samuel Holworthy], [24 December] 1821*
Keswick. Christmas Eve. 1821
Dear Sir
Mr W[MS cut]<Wordsworth has this day> [1] ay delivered me your obliging note. When I received your little volume [2] some months ago, I was sorry that it contained nothing which informed me to whom I might address my thanks, & express the pleasure which I derived from its perusal. It is a great satisfaction that I am now enabled so to do. The poems evidently proceed from a cultivated, amiable & well-directed mind; every reader must peruse them with respect as well as gratification, & in the authors own immediate circle they must have that interest which we attach to the faithful portrait of a friend.
It is seldom that I think of myself as a poet. “My way of life has fallen into the sere, – the yellow leaf.” [3] – & the inclination for writing poetry has past away. But to be assured that I have not failed in my hope of conveying worthy & ennobling feelings to congenial minds would be sufficient recompense for having lived laborious days, even if the labour had not been of a kind which brings with it its own reward.
Should I ever be in your part of the country, I will certainly endeavour to find you at Croxall Parsonage. And if you ever visit our Land of Lakes, you will I trust give me an opportunity of shaking you by the hand at Keswick.
Believe me my dear Sir
yours with sincere respect
[MS missing]
Notes
* Address: To/ The xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxx/ Croxall Parsonage/ near/ Lichfield
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
MS: University of Kentucky Library.
AL; 3p. (c).
Unpublished.
Note on correspondent: Identified by the address – Holworthy was Vicar of St John the
Baptist, Croxall, 1809–1839 – and by the letter’s content. BACK