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British Library, Add MS 47890. Not previously published.
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.
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I know not whether I told you in my last that Ballantyne had
engaged me to write a history of Spanish affairs for <during> the year xxx 1808 for his Edinburgh Annual
Register’.
The Captains application for increase of pay unluckily did not take place till the beginning of the present year,
I have begun this opus, & done what little is done with sufficient spirit, – not a little
unlike the hum drum compilation which they have rejected, & which I requested to see. The weight of my censure falls upon the late
ministry, as much for their base feelings towards Spain, now manifested in all newspapers, as for their former misdeeds, – but I fall
foul of all parties in turn, & speak well of all where it is possible. Lord have mercy upon Mr Roscoe! with the sincerest personal respect & civility, I will so maul those
wretched pamphlets of his that he & the peace mongers will wish they never had been written.
The Annual Review is defunct, – dead of starvation, divinity & dullness.
Did I tell you that I got Edith, Mrs Coleridge & Miss Betham up
Skiddaw on foot, – by help of sandwiches & a bottle of Bucellas,rs C, got into a bog on her way down, more
than knee deep – that she was obliged to take off her petticoat, – that I washed it for her & carried it home upon Juniper?
I have literally not been able to transcribe more Kehamaxxx communication
from Canning has been made me thro Walter Scott to know how he could serve me. I was advised by Sharp to ask for the Stewardship of the Derwentwater Estates, – this lay in Ld
Mulgravesxxx
more trouble & time are required than I either could or would afford for any income in the world. Lord Lonsdale however interested
himself very amiably in the business, & in a very friendly manner offered me the assistance of any of his stewards & surveyors.
However I got that information concerning the situation from Bedford
& have given it up. Then I asked for the Historiographers place – it is held at present it appears by an old Frenchman –
Dutens?
You have a cousin Edward Sir, – now about a fortnight old. I
assure you Herbert is exceedingly interested at the news & talks about him
very often. I wish you could see the sweet pictures Miss Betham had
xxx made of this son of mine, & of Edith. Had you been here we
should have had you.
Taking the Isle of Walcheren is a good thing, & must especially provoke & mortify Bonaparte.xxx Walcheren – the water is just narrow enough to make Bonaparte think he can cross it, & doubtless every means in
his power will be used for the reconquest.
Rickman would have been here at this time had it not been for the death of his
father. whether this will prevent him from coming this year he does not know as yet I believe we shall see Duppa here. he is in the North, & would be yesterday at Durham on his way to visit Sir
John Swinburne – somewhere in Northumberland.
Poor Jackson is still alive & that is all. I hope he will be released before you receive this. – Love &c as usual. We are all well, & I expect two parcels by every coach.
t 4. 1809.