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British Library, Add MS 47890. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), III, pp. 233–236 [with omissions].
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
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My last letter told you of Herberts danger & of his
recovery. You will be a little shocked at the intelligence in this. We lost Emma
yesterday night. five days ago she was in finer health than we had ever seen her, & I repeatedly remarked it, – for a day or two
she had been ailing – on Saturday night breathed shortly & was evidently ill, – yesterday morning was violently sick, & tho she
discharged a prodigious quantity of bile by vomiting, was not relieved. Edmondson
repeatedly saw her, – thought her better at ten o clock, & assured us he saw no danger, – in half an hour she literally fell asleep
without a struggle. – Edith is as well as should be expected, & I perhaps
better. You know how I take tooth-ache & tooth drawing, & I have almost learnt to bear moral pain, – not indeed with the same
levity, – but with as few outward & visible signs. In fact God be praised thanked for it, there never was a man more who had more
entirely set his heart upon things permanent & eternal as I have done; the transitoriness of every thing here is always present to
my feelings as well as my understanding, – were I to speak as sincerely of my family as Wordsworths little girl, my story that I have five children, – three of them at home, –
& two under my Mothers care in Heaven. xxx loss. – It is well you left her xxx
such an infant, – for you are thus spared some sorrow.
Ballantyne has just sent me a present of Campbells new poem,xxxxx xx xx they are very angry & have made wretched work of it. I
hear from all quarters that this article of mine has excited much notice & produced considerable effect. I had the great advantage
of being in earnest, as well as thoroughly understanding the subject. Sidney Smith the Ed. Reviewer knew nothing of Hindoo history
except what newspapers & pamphlets had taught him, & tho he is a Reverend & publishes Sermons believes no more of Xtianity
than he can help. I heartily believe as much as I like, – he dare not disbelieve as much as he would fain do: – no wonder therefore
that I should have the upper hand of such a man in the argument.
Campbells poemxxx abuse us who do not borrow, – the main topic against
me is that I do not imitate Virgil in my story, Pope in my language &c &c –
Scott is still detained in London, & this will prevent me from going with him
to Edinburgh, – for Miss Betham is to be here as early in June as I can get her
to come, & Charles of Antwerp with David Jardine during the midsummer holydays. Indeed if these engagements had not existed I
could not have left home now, for Edith will find it melancholy enough for some
time to come with me, & without me it would be worse. Herbert thank God seems well, – seems is all one dares
say – of all precarious things there is nothing so precarious as life. – You would have been delighted with your eldest niece if you could have seen the sorrow she was in this morning, – for fear her
mother should die for grief, – & then she said she should die too – & then her Pappa would die for grief about her – Just now
Tom, – it might have been happier for you & I if we had gone to bed as early
as John & Eliza,
My history gets on.
God bless you. It is long since I have heard from you – what can you be cruising after? Things go on well in Spain, & will go on better when the Wellesleys get there. – once more God bless you