1061. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, 18 April 1805 ⁠* 

Dear Charles

Had you complained that Madoc was too expensive I should readily have agreed with you – or that it was too dear – I should have said it seems so – but the price is likely to be a fair one – because tho I objected to it, the publishers have persisted in affixing it. [1]  But when you talk of wide margins & waste paper the only reply must be that you have been finding fault without consideration. As for margin it may be dishonestly broad in a work of prose, – but unless you would have two verses in one line – you must be contented with one. To have used a larger type, as Ballantyne advised, would indeed have narrowed the margin at the expence of about ten sheets of paper – i – e – 7/6 more in the price of the book. As for blank paper there is but one blank page in the whole volume – which is between the first & second part of the Notes – & which I did not order the Printer to alter – because it would have delayed occasioned a delay of two or three days. That the blank on the page where a section concludes should sometimes be larger than is sightly is a thing of mere accident; to have begun the next section on the same page would sometimes have produced a greater deformity, would certainly have made the volume far less beautiful & less handsome, – & could not on the most liberal computation have diminished its price more than fourteen pence. I ordered 30 lines in a page – it did not suit Ballantynes types & he would only promise 24 – at the same time recommending 20 & the same type as Scotts Lay of the Last Minstrel. [2]  The Notes could not have been printed smaller – I have not used one fourth of what I had prepared – & they take up about a sixth less room than if they had been at the bottom of the page. – I am afraid the vignette of the snake is misplaced in all the copies – it ought to be at the beginning of the second part – & the leaf counts as P–185–6. [3]  remember that your binder remedies this foolish blunder.

Never mind the books as you have them not. [4]  I know they are not at Kings – but thought they might be loose with you. the bundle of letters of which I speak is a large paper parcel – which if I recollect aright George [5]  carried down to you, as a thing which I might perhaps want, – the letters being spread you may easily have supposed it to contain something different. put in your trunk the Numbers of the Beauties of England [6]  which are loose in your possession.

Your route had best be thus – from Liverpool in the Long Coach to Lancaster – from thence by stage over the sands to Ulverstone. if you are lucky you may effect this the same day that you leave Liverpool. See Furness Abbey & come on by way of Conistone Lake to Ambleside which is at the head of Winandermere. I know not the distances here – but know that this is the best possible route for seeing things in the best possible way. Ambleside is 16 miles from hence. If I knew when to expect you there, which cannot well be because of the uncertainty of crossing the sands I would meet you at Grasmere. If the inn at Ambleside be full – get on to Grasmere – which is 3 miles – where there is a little inn sufficiently comfortable – & call at Wordsworths to show you the way, – very probably I shall be there on the look out for you. from Grasmere to Keswick is a magnificent walk of 13 miles.

I knew not till now that Sam Reid had been at Estlins. his scheme seems promising – I saw Carpenter [7]  at Liverpool, & liked him, & heard him very well spoken of. Does Sam succeed him at the Athenæum [8]  as sub-Librarian?

Longman & Rees are always blundering. the Cyclopædias [9]  for which they enquire were sent to Barrys [10]  with Pinkertons Geography [11]  – & by you sent back to them – on their way here – being now on my shelves.

Will you laugh if I say that your Aunts travels would be useful to me? pray bring them – they will furnish a curious account of English manners a century ago, which any Spaniard may collect in the real way – from a MS.S. in the family of one of his friends. [12]  And can you get me the newspaper or other account of George Lukins? [13]  – I have got on some way in this book & with some success.

The Capt. never gave me a letter about the wine – which was lying at Liverpool. [14]  It is now on its way, & I am in daily expectation of it – & in want having yesterday opened my last bottle of Bucellas [15]  & borrowed port for a friend of Coleridge from Malta.

The Edithling is ailing with her teeth – but we are not alarmed – as there are none but ordinary symptoms – Wordsworths little girl [16]  is ill with the Croup – which is ravaging the neighbourhood & gives me some uneasiness.

Poor Tom is always in the way of danger – just got the yellow fever out of the ship & now the French are come! [17]  What think of you Lord Melville? [18]  of the infamous manœuvre practised to prevent the House of Commons from presenting their resolution in due form? & of the Kings [19]  writing a complimentary letter to the scoundrel as if for the express purpose of insulting the publics feelings? [20] 

Remember me to your brother Dan – to Rex – Hort [21]  – & who else may enquire for me.

God bless you.

RS.

Thursday April 18. 1805.