3755. Robert Southey to
[Herbert Hill](people.html#HillHerbertUncle),
8 December
1821Address: To/ The Reverend Herbert Hill./ Streatham/ Surry.
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: 10 o’Clock/ DE. 11/ 1821 F Nn; E/ 11 DE 11/ 1821
MS: Keswick Museum and
Art Gallery, WC 212. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert
Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 287–289. I was vexed at discovering that [Landors](people.html#LandorWalterSavage) bookLandor’s Idyllia Heroica Decem Phaleuciorum Unum Partim jam Primo Partim Iterum atq Tertio Edit
Savagius Landor (1820), no. 1598 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. had been overlooked when the parcel
was made up. If however there be in this place paper large enough for such an enclosure, I will frank it with my next dispatches to
[Gifford](people.html#GiffordWilliam), in the course of a week, & he will consign it to [Bedfords](people.html#BedfordGrosvenorCharles) care
Two or three days ago I received a rich present from [Landor](people.html#LandorWalterSavage), – three score volumes – of all sorts & kinds, none that are without value, & some that are of considerable
worth. The only one connected with Portugal is Osorius de Nobilitate 1542, printed at Lisbon.Jerónimo Osório (1506–1580), De Vera Sapienta et de Nobilitate Civili ey Nobilitate
Christiana (1542–1576), no. 2124 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.Ax There is the Speculum Historiale Vincentii Beloacensis 1494Vincent of Beauvais (c.
1190-c. 1264), Speculum Historiale (1494), no. 2899 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. A folio
Terence printed at Milan without a date, not I think later than 1500Terentius, cum
Commentariis Donati et Calphurnii, etc (n. d.), no. 2672 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library; an edition of the
work of the Roman playwright, Publius Terentius Afer (c. 195/185–159 BC). – A Milan Salust 1501 -Sallustii Opera, cum Commentariis L. Vallae (1501), no. 2400 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s
library, an edition of the work of the Roman historian, Gaius Sallustius Crispus (86–34 BC).Laurentii
Vallensis Opus Elegantiarum Lingua Lat. 1487Lorenzo Valla (c. 1407–1457),
Elegentiae Linguae Latinae (1487), no. 2895 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. all folios a great
many volumes of Italian poetry & modern Latin, one volume of poems in the Genoese,Gian-Giacomo Cavalli (1590–1657), Cittara Zeneize (1745), no. 3065 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s
library. & another in the Neapolitan, or Sicilian dialect, I know not which.Possibly Giulio Cesare Cortese (1570–1640), Micco Passaro Namorato (1666), no. 549 in the sale catalogue of
Southey’s library. And an account of the sacking of Rome in 1527 by Jacopo Buonaparte, who was present: first printed in 1756
at Lucca with the false date of Cologne, & supprest by the Austrian influence, – so that very few copies are extant.Jacopo Buonaparte (dates unknown), Ragguaglio Storico Di Tutto l’Occorso Giorno per Giorno nel
Sacco di Roma dell’Anno MXXXVII (1756), no. 429 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. It is a long while
since I have had so miscellaneous a cargo of rarities.
So the poor old Admiral never lived to receive his Admirals pay.James Burney
had died on 17 November 1821, just after being promoted to Rear Admiral, on the retired Navy List, in July 1821. I am reading
Kotzebues voyage,Otto von Kotzebue (1787–1846), Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea
and Bering’s Straits (1821), no. 1576 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. & the thought often occurs
that no man in this country will feel so much interest in it as he would have done. – About the same time I lost my friend at Ludlow,
[Wade Browne](people.html#BrowneWade), an excellent man, for whom I had a great regard, & in whose
house I always found a joyful welcome.
KnoxJohn William Knox (1784–1862), clergyman, scholar and usher at Westminster
School 1806–1821. must be the best judge of what is advisable for [Edward](people.html#HillEdwardJnr). The Greek examination for CollegeAt Westminster School there are 40 King’s
(or Queen’s) Scholars, based in their own boarding house, called ‘College’. Entrance to this elite is by means of an examination
known as ‘The Challenge’. Successful Scholars have the right to special privileges; at this time these included Scholarships
reserved for them at Christ Church, Oxford and Trinity College, Cambridge. is exclusively in the Epigrams.
That monkey is a great favourite with [Cuthbert](people.html#SoutheyCharlesCuthbert), who
looks at it every night on his way to bed, & says it is very uggy, & he tells me that when I am shaving I am almost as uggy as
that monkey.
The reprint of Brazil will be finished immediately.The second edition of the
first volume of the History of Brazil (1822). There were no second editions of volumes two and three. I have
only to receive the table of contents & preface, which I expect every day. [Heber](people.html#HeberRichard) has helped me to some materials for improving the second volume: he has given me one volume of the Paraguay Annual
Letters, & lent me another,Fernao Guerreiro (c. 1550–1617), Relaçam Annal das
Cousas que Fizeram os Padres da Companhia de Jesus na India e Japao, Brazil, Angola, Cabo Verde, Guine (1607–1611), nos
3483–3484 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Heber had lent Southey some of the missing volumes from this series.
& Montoyas Conquista Espiritual.Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (1585–1652), Conquista
Espiritual hecha por los Religiosos de la Compañia de la Jesus en la Provincias del Paraguay, Parana, Uruguay, y Tape
(1639). I also purchased at Edinburgh when I was there with [Rickman](people.html#RickmanJohn) that
volume concerning Madagascar & Brazil a copy of which once past thro your hands at Lisbon.Francois Cauche (1616–1699), Relations Veritable et Curieuse de l’Isle de Madagascar et du Bresil, et Histoire des Derniers
Troubles du Bresil (1651), no. 2363 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. The part relating Brazil is a
history of the recovery of Pernambuco by Pierre Moreau, an adventurer in the Dutch service.Pierre Moreau (dates unknown), Histoire des Derniers Troubles du Bresil Entre les Hollandois et les Portugais
(1651). But there is a separate, & perhaps an enlarged edition of this which I saw in Buonapartes library at
Fontainebleau,The library of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; Emperor of the French
1804–1814, 1815), which Southey had seen when he visited Fontainebleau on 21 May 1817. – unless it were the same book
separated from the Madagascar part.
You may have heard of a History of Brazil by James Henderson.James Henderson
(c. 1783–1848), History of Brazil (1821), no. 1182 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Henderson had sailed
to South America in 1819 and was Consul-General in Columbia 1823–1836. He has thought proper to send me the book. It is an
account & not a history of the country, – made up almost wholly from CazalManoel Aires de
Casal (1754–1821), Corografia Brazilica, ou Relação Historico-Geografica do Reino do Brazil (1817), no. 3252 in the
sale catalogue of Southey’s library. & the Papers in the Patriota,O
Patriota, Jornal Litterario, Politico, Mercantil &c do Rio de Janeiro (1813–1814), no. 3641 in the sale catalogue of
Southey’s library. with what little information he picked up in the country during a short stay there. The prints are
ill-drawn & worse executed upon stone. He is a man of this country, without any education, & I believe not in the best repute,
– this book however is creditable to his industry, & not discreditable in any point of view. – Luccocks bookJohn Luccock (1770–1826), Notes on Rio de Janeiro, and the Southern Parts of Brazil; Taken During
a Residence of Ten Years in that Country, from 1808 to 1818 (1820), no. 1645 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
He did not make it the subject of a paper in the Quarterly Review. has a great deal of interesting matter in
it. I shall perhaps make it the subject of a paper in the Q R. At present I am finishing an xxxx a reviewal of
Dobrizhoffer,Southey reviewed Sara Coleridge’s An Account of the Abipones, an
Equestrian People of Paraguay (1822) in Quarterly Review, 26 (January 1822), 277–323. The book was a
translation of Martin Dobrizhoffer (1717–1791), Historia de Abiponibus Equestri, Bellicosaque Paraquariae Natione
(1784). – my next subject is to be [Adamsons](people.html#AdamsonJohn) Life of Camoens.John Adamson, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Luis de Camoens (1820), no. 10 in the
sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Southey reviewed it in Quarterly Review, 27 (April 1822), 1–39.
The French are in good time supplying materials for my Hist: of the War.Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). There is an account of Soults Campaigns in Portugal
recently published,Pierre-Madeleine Le Noble (1772–1824), Mémoires sur les Opérationes
des Français en Galice, en Portugal, et dans La Vallée du Tage, en 1809, sous le Commandement du Maréchal Soult
(1821). – as rascally a one as could be desired; & one of a very different description by Marshal Gouvion St Cyr, concerning his own campaign in Catalonia.Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
(1764–1830), Journal des Opérations de l’Armée de Catalogne, en 1808 et 1809 (1821).
[Marquis Wellesley](people.html#WellesleyMarquis) is a fit xxxxx man to civilize
the Irish, if the Ministry here could be relied upon to support him.Wellesley was appointed
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on 8 December 1821. I have been reading Spensers dialogue on the state of Ireland this
morning;Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–1599; DNB), A View of the Present
State of Ireland (1596). – & the country stands as much in need of Roman civilization now as it did in his
days. Such a people must be under military law, or a permanent armed police, till they are fit for any thing
I have to perform the disagreable task of writing a new-years ode, which must be about that miserable country.Southey’s ‘Ireland’, published in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and
Prospects of Society, 2 vols (London, 1829), I, pp. [295]–302. Southey felt compelled to write on Ireland to celebrate
George IV’s state visit there 12 August–3 September 1821, the first by a British monarch since the fourteenth century. If
that subject had not occurred I meant to have written one which would have saved me the trouble of ever writing another till that was
called for. This I did with the birthday.‘Ode for St George’s Day’, unpublished until
Poetical Works, 10 vols (London, 1837–1838), III, pp. 258–262. My odes for the last two years are better
than any thing that I ever expected to write in that form.‘The Warning Voice. Ode I’ and ‘The
Warning Voice. Ode II’, the New Year’s Odes for 1820 and 1821, not published until they appeared in The Englishman’s Library:
Comprising a Series of Historical, Biographical and National Information (London, 1824), pp. 381–389. On the
present occasion I go to the task with an ill will & with no anticipation of doing any thing well.
Love to [my Aunt](people.html#HillCatherine) & the Children
God bless youRS.[Keswick](places.html#Keswick). Dec 8. 1821.