1424. Robert Southey to John Rickman, [9 February 1808]
1424. Robert Southey to John Rickman, [9 February 1808] *
My dear Rickman
At last I have news to tell you that I have another daughter, [1] born within these last two hours.
It will be about 18 days before you see me. The road to London is a long one, – by x making it a little longer I can continue to see a part of the country which is new to me & shew D Manuel [2] the Peak &c. This is employing time, instead of wasting it, – & putting out the cost of the journey to gross interest.
I should not like to do it without a companion but Tom goes with me as far as Penkridge in Staffordshire.
No man can have read of the Peruvians without being reminded of the Persians in some things respecting their religion. It is curious that the strange method of exposing the dead upon towers. which so peculiarly distinguishes the followers of Zoroaster, should be found also among the mountaineers of Peru. This I believe Robertson [3] overlooked among with ten thousand other things, – In settling my accounts with Herrera [4] this morning I came to this among the marked passages.
If it falls in your way to find out a cheap taylor, learn the name for xxx me against I arrive & stand in need of him –
God bless you
RS.
Notes
* Address: To/ John Rickman Esqr
Endorsement: RS./ Circ –/ 17 Feb. 1808
MS: Huntington Library, RS 126. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.
Dating note: Dating from
internal evidence that Emma Southey had just been born, on 9 February 1808. BACK
[2] Southey did not publish a sequel to Don Manuel Espriella’s Letters from England (1807) for which he was collecting material on this trip. BACK
