328. Robert Southey to John May, 15 June 1798

328. Robert Southey to John May, 15 June 1798 *
Friday. 15 June. 98. Bath.
My dear friend
I had hoped to have given you an account of our settling by this time; but we are still on the hunt. I arrived safe, & found both my Mother & Edith better (I think) than at my departure. the auction was over, & had not been an unfavourable one; it has just produced enough to clear all the debts here, & furniture enough is reserved for the new & smaller habitation of which we are in search.
I will send you Charles Lambs last poem. it may belike fill the sheet, but the sheet could not be better filled. I reviewed his & Lloyds poems [1] on Wednesday.
Living without God in the World [2]
–––––
You will, I think, like this poem. it is quite in Lambs peculiar stile.
We are broiling in this city of freestone. I envy you the river Avon. this evening we are to see a house in the neighbourhood in a very beautiful situation. Tom is with us. direct here till I can inform you of a new abode.
God bless you.
yrs truly
Robert Southey.
Notes
* Address: To/ John May Esqr / Hales/ near Downton/ Wiltshire/ Single
Stamped: BATH
Endorsement: 1798 No. 20/ Robert Southey/
Bath 15 June/ recd: 20 do/ ansd: 7 July
MS: Berg Collection, New
York Public Library. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and
New York, 1965), I, p. 167 [in part; verses not reproduced]. BACK
[1] Southey’s review of Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd, Blank Verse (1798), was published in the Critical Review, 24 (October 1798), 232–234. BACK