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British Library, Add MS 30927. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 322-324.
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.
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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.
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I have written to Longman & Rees about your Amadis
Rickman failed in one attempt to get Edward a birth. he has tried elsewhere & assures me that ‘the young gentleman shall be afloat ere long.’ I have given him your great coat to be midshipmannified, your white worsted breeches – & your chest. do you know his Aunt means to go with him to the port – & actually talks of setting off for Portsmouth before he has an appointment. I have talked of the madness of this to him that she may be prevented if possible.
Biddlecombe told me of your visit. should you be still at Yarmouth when
Rickman is in the country he will be very glad to see you, & may perhaps come on board. that drawing which M B. has was a copy by Mrs
rs Keenan from her
husbands first picture of me.
Margaret is cutting more teeth & ailing in consequence, which has made her lose flesh.
I am still at historys & his sister in the Isle of Wight – if you
should hear of them claim acquaintance for your namesake. he is a very happy chearful little man – loves a quaint thing as dearly I do,
& taught the people of Otaheite to make puns, for which they ought to deify him.
Danvers is in the midst of moving – always an unpleasant job – & with his
state of feelings more particularly so. he has found lodgings in Orchard Street. Cupid
I am going at last to commit a great extravagance, having vowed a vow that I will this buy a gold watch key, & no
longer stink my fingers with old brass – a good vow for Mr Powell.
There are nearly two thousand volunteersby law, even if his own nature did not impel him to it. This Irish business
It vexes me to think how you are lying without hope! I am not surprized at the effect your Boatswains character produces – because I suppose the men are very much under his power – but are there no means of getting rid of him – no way of promoting him to get him out of the way?
I am going to the Post Office – for my watch key – & to see my old friend Juniper