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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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Of late I have been almost overwhelmed with proof sheets, & as if the Devil were determined I should have no time
ever to think of hitching him into a ballad again, he has contrived that I should have half a score of letters to write upon a subject
no ways concerning me. There came to me in a parcel from Murray a book entitled
Commentary on the Memoirs of Mr Fox,I am
in my trouble is not yet over. For there remains a vehement attack upon Canning,
The carpet is arrived & very handsome, – but I fear very ill made in point of strength. The six shilling order seems to have come too late, 5/6 being charged for it, & the texture very coarse & very slight. The brown is rather claret than chocolate, & will neither look so well nor wear so well, – but it is very handsome & will greatly improve the grandeur of my room. The Lion is a grand Lion, – verily a most worthy beast, – but I wish the Devil had the blue sky, for ten days weather will make dirty weather of it, & every coal that would only singe the Lions hide without hurting him, will make a flaw in the firmament.
To night I have a letter from Longman, apologizing for long
silence, which was because Pinkerton
Rickman unluckily franked the Argentinato y & he will send
it you with a set of the Q. Review, & the Book of Bell & the Dragon.
I believe Sarah has no reason to be uneasy about Margaret. the appearance is not very unusual I believe. Her own headaches I hope will leave her soon – You ought to have no complaints with so eminent a physician in the family.
I hope that Suchetsxxxxx whether we shall succeed at Badajoz.p good probability of success. The D del Infantadoin on in as it does at
present till France is worn out with the continual drain, or delivered by some accident from its present damnable state of oppression.
C. Rodrigo
y 27. 1812.
Last night I had a letter announcing a new cousin he-cousin, whom I am obliged to designate by the gender,
because my uncle is puzzled what name to give him. His mothers he would have given, but Bigg Hill would be ridiculous as he says – if the hero
should prove a diminutive. So he thinks either of Wither, which he does not like, – or Oliver, – in opposition to Rowland.
Love to Sarah & kiss to my godsdaughter-niece