1231. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 2 November 1806
1231. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 2 November 1806 *
My dear Grosvenor
I have yet to send you Merry [1] & Churchey. [2] the first you shall receive with the Preface in two days. I will write again about Churchey – & at the same time enquire the date of poor Amos’s birth. [3]
Have you a specimen of Headley? [4] Horace might ask Beloe [5] (who spoke to me about him) the place & date of his birth, – & pray remember that it be said of him that he had a feeling of the real merits of our early poets.
Your relapses Grosvenor give me great concern. Is your liver affected? If it be I wish I could persuade of what I myself certainly believe – that no man living is so successful in cases of the liver as Beddoes.
All well here.
God bless you
RS.
Sunday Nov. 2. 1806.
Notes
* Address: To/ G. C. Bedf [MS torn]/ E[MS torn]/ Single
Postmark: E/ NOV 5/
1806
MS: Bodleian Library, Eng. Lett. c. 24. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Robert Merry (1755–1798), a poet who moved to Florence and published collections of poems entitled Arno (1784) and Florence Miscellany (1785). Selections of his poems are included in Specimens of the Later English Poets, 3 vols (London, 1807), III, pp. 446–454. BACK
[2] Walter Churchey (1747–1805; DNB), a Welsh poet who published Poems and Imitations of the British Poets in 1789. He is not included in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807). BACK
[3] Southey had written to Joseph Cottle requesting an account of Churchey’s life and some information about his brother Amos Cottle, for inclusion in the Specimens of the Later English Poets; see Southey to Joseph Cottle, 11 August 1806, Letter 1210. Amos Cottle is not included in the Specimens. For Southey’s follow up, see Southey to Joseph Cottle, 2 November 1806, Letter 1232. BACK
