1685. Robert Southey to John Murray, 28 September 1809
1685. Robert Southey to John Murray, 28 September 1809 *
Keswick. Sept 28. 1809.
My dear Sir
In making use of some packing paper which came from your house, a note of yours has just been discovered, which slipt between some of the inner sheets, & so escaped observation when the parcel was opened. It has vexed me, – because you will have naturally concluded that I have been blamably inattentive to its contents, in not returning Knox [1] as you desired. I am very sorry for the accident.
Your third number I have not yet seen. [2] Mr Gifford will probably have told you that it is not in my power to do any thing for the next, [3] – nevertheless it is better that I should have some materials before me, for change of employment sometimes has the effect of relaxation, & I might at intervals be preparing for the fifth. [4]
I am in daily expectation of our friend Duppa.
Yrs very truly
Robert Southey.
Notes
* Address: To Mr Murray/ Bookseller/ Fleet Street/
London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ OCT2/ 1809
Watermark: shield, 1803, T BOTFIELD
Endorsement: 1809 Sept
28th/ Southey R –
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 42550. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Vicesimus Knox (1752–1821; DNB) had edited Elegant Extracts; or, Useful and Entertaining Pieces of Poetry (1809). BACK
[2] Southey reviewed in the third number of the Quarterly Review, 2 (August 1809): Transactions of the Missionary Society in the South Sea Islands, 24–61; George Annesley, Viscount Valentia (1770–1844), Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, and the Red Sea, Abyssinia and Egypt in the Years 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806 (1809), 88–126. BACK
[3] In fact the next number carried a review by Southey held over from the second, of Abiel Holmes (1763–1837), American Annals; or, a Chronological History of America, from its Discovery in 1492 to 1806 in the Quarterly Review, 2 (November 1809), 319–337. BACK
[4] Southey reviewed James Stanier Clarke (c. 1765–1834; DNB) and John McArthur (1755–1840; DNB), The Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, K.B. from his Lordship’s Manuscripts (1809); John Charnock (1756–1806; DNB), Biographical Memoirs of Lord Viscount Nelson, &c., &c., &c.; with Observations, Critical and Explanatory (1806); James Harrison (d. 1847), The Life of Lord Nelson (1806); T. O. Churchill (fl. 1800–1823), The Life of Lord Viscount Nelson, Duke of Bronté, &c (1808), in the Quarterly Review, 3 (February 1810), 218–262. His article was later expanded into a full-scale Life of Nelson (1813). BACK
