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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. d. 47. ALS; 4p. . Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 221–223 [in part].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Ian Packer and Lynda Pratt
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The third & last portion of the Vision
Poor Hyde!
Next, when you are near your tea-dealer (N.B. do not go out of your way to do it, but, at your leisure, there being no
hurry) order for me 24 pounds of souchong at 6/6d. 3 Do at 8/. 3 Do at 10/
& 6 pounds of green at 10/. If this be paid for when it is bought, I suppose you are entitled to the usual discount of five per
cent, which is worth asking for.
Now concerning the Vision. You may growl as much as you like. But before you begin to put on your critical cap, observe with respect to
the metre, that I write upon the postulate of using in the four first feet of the verse, any foot of two or three syllables: the
English hexameter in this respect bearing the same loose resemblance to the Latin, that the English heroic verse of ten syllables does
to the ancient Iambic verse, after which it is sometimes called. This of course is to be explained in the preface.xxxx Cornwallxxx venison as a better thing than turtle, – but as something else, there being room for both. Let it be abused, – I
care not. I have wished for <more than> twenty years to make the experiment, & the experiment reconciled me to a subject which I
should otherwise not willingly have taken up.
You & Longman may determine whether to print it in common
quarto or in foolscap quarto.
To whom shall I dedicate it? Not to Elmsley I think, for the
reason which you gave, & which I anticipated. The great Peter I hope will pay
me a visit next summer; & one of these days I will prefix his name to something to which he will have no dislike.x it would gratify me at this time to wear the Kings colours. Perpend this, if it is to be done, I suppose it would
be decorous to ask permission, & that I can do thro Lord Wm Gordon,m Knighton. Should there be any unfitness, as perhaps there is, I may very likely address it to Wordsworth.