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British Library, Add MS 47891. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), III, pp. 100–103.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.
First I have to thank you for your letter & your poem, & secondly to explain why I have not done this sooner. We were a long time without knowing where you where, & when news came from Miss Barker that you were in London, by the time a letter could have reached you, you were gone, – & lastly Mr Jackson wrote to you to Bristol. I will now compose an epistle which shall follow you farther west, & tell you all the news of Greta Hall.
Bona Marietta hath had kittens, they were remarkably ugly, all taking after their father Thomas, who there is reason to
believe was either Uncle or Grandsire to Bona herself, the prohibited degrees of consanguinity which you will find at the end of the
Bible, not being regarded by cats. As I have never been able to persuade this family that catlings, fed for the purpose & smothered
with onions, would be rabbits to all eatable purposes, Bona Mariettas ugly progeny no sooner came into the world than they were sent
out of it; the River Nymph Greta conveyed them to the River God Derwent, & if neither the eels nor the Ladies of the Lake have
taken a fancy to them on their way, Derwent hath consigned them to the Nereids: you may imagine them converted into sea cats by favour
of Neptune, & write an episode to be inserted in Ovids Metamorphoses. Bona bore the loss patiently & is in good health &
spirits. I fear that if you meet with any of the race of Mrs Mary Rowes cat
We have been out one evening in the boat Mr Jackson, Mrs Wilson & the children & kindled our fire upon the same place where you
drank tea with us last autumn. The boat has been painted, & there is to be a boathouse built for it. – Alterations are going on
here upon a great scale. The parlour has been transmogrified – that Hartley was one of my mothers words, your Mother will
explain it <to> you, & then you may tell her what it is in Ejectian. The masons are at work in my study, & on the shaving
room; – the garden is inclosed with a hedge, some trees planted behind it, a shrubbery few shrubs, & abundance of
currant trees. We must however wait till the autumn before all can be done that is intended in the garden. Mr White
the Belligerent is settled in the Generals
There has been a misfortune in the family. We had a hen with five chickens, & a gleedyou left him. Edith has taken your place in his house, & talks to Mrs Wilson by
the hour about her Hartley. She grows like a young Giantess, & has a disposition to bite her arm, which you
know is a very foolish trick. Herbert is a fine fellow. I call him the Boy of
Basan
The weather has been very bad, – nothing but easterly winds which have kept every thing back. We had one day hotter
than had been remembered for fourteen years: the glass was at 85 in the shade, in the sun in Mr Calverts
Your friend xx Dapper,name saying is for you, the
meaning is for her. I speak darkly, after the manner of the wise men of old.
Remember me to Mr Poole, & tell him I shall be glad when he
turns Laker. He will find tolerable lodging at the Hill;no good
stores of books for a rainy day, & as hearty a shake by the hand on his arrival as he is likely to meet with between Stowey & Keswick. – Some books of mine will soon be
ready for your father. Will he have them sent anywhere, or will he pick
them up himself when he passes thro London on his way Northward? – Tell him that I am advancing well in South America,is for intelligence is for him also.
I am desired to send you as much love as can be inclosed in a letter. I hope it will not be charged double on that account at the post office, – but there is Mrs Wilsons love Mr Jacksons, your Aunt Southeys, your Aunt Lovells, & Ediths, with a purr from Bona Marietta, an open-mouthed kiss from Herbert, & three wags of the tail from Dapper. I trust they will <all> arrive safe, & remain