821. Robert Southey to Mary Barker, 19 August [1803]

821. Robert Southey to Mary Barker, 19 August [1803] ⁠* 

You will be shocked at reading this – our poor child  [1]  is dying of water on the brain. she is happily insensible – & I trust in God will very speedily pass to a world of more permanent happiness. Edith is almost heart-broken – & I am struggling with the heaviest affliction that it has ever yet pleased God to try me with.

As soon as possible after her deliverance we shall set off for Keswick. I will write to you from thence our hopes & views are all wrecked & ruined. but we shall soon be better. indeed I am recovering, the first shock came upon me like a thunderbolt – it is past & I am perfectly resigned

God bless you

R Southey.


Friday Aug 19.

Notes

* Address: Miss Barker/ Congreve/ Miss Barker Penkridge/ Staffordshire.
Postmark: [partial] BRISTOL AUG 803
MS: MS untraced; text is taken from Robert Galloway Kirkpatrick Jnr, ‘The Letters of Robert Southey to Mary Barker From 1800 to 1826’ (unpublished PhD, Harvard, 1967), p. 59
Unpublished. BACK

[1] Mary Barker was Margaret’s godmother. BACK

Addressee

Barker, Mary (c. 1780–1853)

People mentioned

Southey, Margaret Edith (1802–1803) (mentioned 1 time)
Fricker, Edith (1774–1837) (mentioned 1 time)

Places mentioned

Keswick (mentioned 1 time)
The Collected Letters of Robert Southey, Part Two
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