1275. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 13 February 1807
1275. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 13 February 1807 *
My dear Harry
Thank you for your news from the New Jerusalem, [1] which is all I wanted – except an account of the Preachers costume. This I have heard is very splendid, but am inclined to think my information must be inaccurate as you do not mention it. Let me know, & the sooner the better.
The letter which I wrote to Carlisle about the Hospital must surely have miscarried. [2] I thought it very strange & very unlike him – that no answer should have been returned; – but as he has not spoken about it to you am almost certain it can never have reached him. This is very awkward. – However as things are you may perhaps as well make what use of Davids dispensary you can for a few weeks. Write to Lisbon & say you are ready to come over, xxx & my Uncle in his answer will I suppose supply you with means.
You should make haste with your reviewing – Johnes is just done – two evenings will finish Clarkson [3] & two after that, all that remains. [4]
The Counts direction is 42. Princess Street – Leicester Square. As for Bedford there is xxx it seems a sort of Revolution in that family, – & in addition to this Horace they have <just> found out what I knew three years ago – that Horace has lost his wits – So under these circumstances you may as well keep away. [5]
It seems likely at present that I shall make up mind to remaining in this house – in which case it must be finished & fitted up. In this case your Lordship may yet pass another summer here before you begin your campaign. I must either decide upon quitting it in about a twelvemonth or upon keeping it – the reason of this is a sort of secret history which I suppose it is not yet quite decorous for me to mention – so I shall keep puss in the bag a little longer. [6] It suits my inclinations well to feel myself rooted here – tho it would have suited my uncertain prospects better to have remained ready to remove at any time. If we fix upon remaining – & xxx xxx <are for> determining to remove at a given time I do not see how that is to be done for lack of means – huzza then for the books! I asked my daughters opinion to day – whether she liked to go & live in another house or to stop here, & she said she would not live in another house – & I think she was right – Twas a sort of cat feeling of instinctive good sense.
Don M. will be finished as soon as your friend Richard Taylor pleases. [7] I am getting on with Brazil, [8] & expect (God willing) to do more this year than I have ever done in any preceding one.
My daughter & Herbert are both well. I call him the Caõzinho & the little Mayortes – who you know was the great Caõ (Khan) – he is entitled to these names for his Tartar eyes – & because I used to call him Doggy-bow-wow. [9]
God bless you
RS.
Friday. Feby 13. 1807.
Notes
* Address: To/ Dr Southey –/ 11. Craven Street/ Strand
MS:
Bodleian Library, MS Don. d.3. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Southey had asked Henry to visit the Swedenborgian New Jerusalem church and report on what he witnessed for use in Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella. Translated from the Spanish (1807); see Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 17 January 1807, Letter 1260. The church was in York Street, St James Square, and was led by the Rev. Joseph Proud (1745–1826; DNB). BACK
[2] This letter has not been traced. Southey had suggested that Carlisle might have been able to assist Henry in finding a position at one of the London hospitals; see Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 17 January 1807, Letter 1260. BACK
[3] Thomas Johnes (1748–1816; DNB) translated Sir John Froissart’s Chronicles of England, France, and the Adjoining Countries, from the Latter Part of the Reign of Edward II to the Coronation of Henry IV (1804) and the Memoirs of John Lord de Joinville, Grand Seneschal of Champagne Written by Himself (1807). The book was reviewed in Annual Review for 1807, 6 (1808), 215–219. Southey reviewed Thomas Clarkson, A Portraiture of Quakerism, as Taken From a View of the Moral Education, Discipline, Peculiar Customs, Religious Principles, Political and Civil Œconomy, and Character, of the Society of Friends (1806), in the Annual Review for 1806, 5 (1807), 594–607. BACK
[4] As well as Clarkson’s book, Southey reviewed the following in the Annual Review for 1806, 5 (1807): John Barrow (1764–1848; DNB), A Voyage to Cochin China, in the Years 1792, and 1793: Containing a General View of the Productions, and Political Importance of this Kingdom; and also of such European Settlements as were Visited on the Voyage, with Sketches of the Manners, Character, and Condition of their Inhabitants (1806), 2–16; James Burney, A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean ... Illustrated with Charts (Vol. 2; 1806), 16–30; James Stanier Clarke (1765?–1834; DNB), Naufragia, or, Historical Memoirs of Shipwrecks (Vol. 2; 1806), 71–72; Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society (1805), 155–160; Patrick Colquhoun (1745–1820; DNB), A New and Appropriate System of Education for the Labouring People (1806), 278–282; John Wooll (bap. 1767–1833; DNB), Biographical Memoirs of the late Revd. Joseph Warton, Master of St. Mary Winton College; Prebendary of Winchester Cathedral; and Rector of the Parishes of Wickham and Upham, Hants: to which are added, a Selection from his Works; and a Literary Correspondence Between Eminent Persons, Reserved by him for Publication (1806), 298–305; Lucy Hutchinson (née Apsley; 1620–1681; DNB) and Julius Hutchinson (dates unknown), Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson (1806), 361–378; James Grant Raymond (1771–1817), The Life of Thomas Dermody (1806), 383–397; Henry Richard Fox, 3rd Lord Holland, Some Account of the Life and Writings of Lope Felix de Vega Carpio (1806), 397–411; Richard Duppa, The Life and Literary Works of Michael Angelo Buonarotti, with his Poetry and Letters (1806), 411–425; George Chalmers, (bap. 1742–1825; DNB), ed., The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay (1806), 482–494; Thomas Moore (1779–1852; DNB), Epistles, Odes and Other Poems (1806), 498–499; [Society of Friends of Pennsylvania], Accounts of Two Attempts Towards the Civilization of Some Indian Natives (1806), 589–593; Thomas Clarkson, A Portraiture of Quakerism, as Taken From a View of the Moral Education, Discipline, Peculiar Customs, Religious Principles, Political and Civil Œconomy, and Character, of the Society of Friends (1806), 594–607; Thomas Jarrold (1770–1853; DNB), Dissertations on Man, Philosophical, Physiological and Political; in Answer to Mr. Malthus’s ‘Essay on the Principle of Population’ (1806), 607–615. BACK
[6] Coleridge was about to separate from his wife and so was quitting Greta Hall. As a consequence, Southey was forced to decide whether to leave as well or remain in the house. He chose the latter, sending for his books later in the year. BACK
[7] Southey was sending copy for Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella. Translated from the Spanish (1807) to be printed by Taylor (1781–1858; DNB). BACK
[9] In Palmerin of England; by Francisco de Moraes. Corrected by Robert Southey from the Original Portugueze, 4 vols (London, 1807), I, p. 54, Mayortes is identified as the first leader to call himself the Great Khan (Gran Can), because he had once been enchanted into the form of a dog. ‘Caõzinho’ is Portuguese for ‘doggy’. Southey’s humorous point is that his children’s eyes resembled those of central Asians. BACK
