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National Library of Wales, MS 4812D. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), II, pp. 372–374 [in part].
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.
You know there prevails an unlucky opinion in the world respecting Wales, that it never produced a man of genius; as if
nature having bestowed great care in bringing the mutton of the principality to perfection, left the men thereof in a very unfinished
state. I have more than once been driven to a nonplus in opposing this wicked opinion, not having been able to produce any greater men
than Sir Henry Morgan the Buccaneer,t Winifredr Charles Williams, I shall have xxxxx who do xxxx
xxx xxxxx S <t Winifredperadventure it may be a miracle, I dare not deny that;> but as a
good Protestant & a staunch No Popery Man I defy Dr Milnerth June 1805t
Winifred has any thing to do with it.
As you may well suppose I receive plenty of letters from poets aspirant, – more especially since my promotion to a
dignity, which they seem to regard as curates do the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury. This evening however I have had a letter which
is very x remarkable for its good sense, & <- more remarkable still, -> this letter is from a Welsh herdsman in the Vale of Clwyd.
He tells me that his father died when he was seven years of age, leaving him nothing to depend upon but a knowledge of
reading writing & the principles of arithmetic <grammar>, which must needs have been little enough. That for nine
years & a half he has tended the herds of a farmer between Ruthin & Denbigh. That thro the indulgence of a neighbouring
gentleman (whom he has not named) he possesses many advantages, & he requests permission to send me specimens of his compositions
in prose & verse that I may advise him whether to submit them to public notice or let them rest in oblivion. The most remarkable
part of the letter is that he says he is seems to be perfectly contented. He says that his situation is comfortable, that he
has no wish to change it, & that his highest ambition is the acquaintance of learned men. Whether he will prove poet or not remains
to be seen, – but he is certainly an extraordinary man, & seems to possess that wisdom which is more rare & far more valuable
than any brilliancy of talents.
I have He sent his letter by an acquaintance to Manchester & requested an answer thro the same channel, but I am
apprehensive from xx the date & the time allotted for his friends stay there that that answerfind have found a herdsman reading Madoc
Should his writings possess any merit of their own, his lot may be bettered by them, without changing it. And whatever
their merit may be there is something so happy in the mans state of mind that whenever I set foot in Wales again I will find him out.
If he proves to be a Welsh Bloomfield I bespeak you for his patron. His
letter is so well – I might say so beautifully written that it is the admiration of every person to whom I have as yet shown it. If he
writes under cover to you, open the letter inclosure & judge for yourself.
I have a letter from Edward in which he expresses a wish for what has always seemed to me the wisest thing which could be done for him considering his habits & character, – that an engagement could be procured for him at a respectable theatre.
I am about to send off the preface &c of RoderickXx xxxx xx xx xx Remember that if you do not receive every thing of mine as soon as it appears, xxxx xxx xxx
negligence or oversight in the publishers is very possible, – but there will never be any neglect on my part. How is the eye?