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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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I began to wonder at your silence – or rather in truth to feel very uneasy, considering your last account of your health.
First & foremost I have to tell you that what you have been wishing to take place is likely to come to pass by the
latter end of spring.xxx good time. my optimism is of a
practical character – if we knew as much of the moral world as we do of the physical I believe we should find it as wisely &
unerringly directed. secondly I wish you to give George Fricker five guineas for
me. poor fellow I wish it were in my power to serve him essentially – if he had but the head of my brothers – or they had his good
disposition, which God knows is worth ten times more – what a happy mixture it would be!
Whether or not I told you the whole history of Edward I cannot
remember – that he drew on me two drafts – one for three pounds – the other for 5 – 13 – & inclosed me a taylors bill for 11 – 16 –
3½. before my Gentleman received the news that I should pay neither the one nor the other he writes to inform me, in answer to my
letter about his going to sea again – that his Aunt had sold all his uniforms
to a travelling Jew. of course I could then do nothing but tell him that he & she might settle their matters as they pleased, &
so I have done with him. In his last letter he let the cat out of the bag, showing that he was still in correspondence with his Aunt. I have copied his letters & sent them to my Uncle that he may see that infamous womans conduct. I wish she knew that since she
took the boy from the Brig,Suffisante, the brig-sloop on which Southey
had found his brother a place.
You will be glad to hear that I am in excellent good health, never better. Coleridge is set off for Devonshire – not Madeira, deterred by the dread of
expences beyond his means & resolved to work for a supply by next autumn. I miss him – but still worse do I miss my poor dear
books, & the booksellers shops. Can you not look in at Codys
About my Uncles books. those foreign ones which are in
English binding are not liable to duty, & any person at all conversant in books can ascertain English from foreign binding as
readily as English from Hebrew. In the small case he says there are many which would be useful to me – I wish he had sent me a list of
them – & am almost tempted to have the case sent off. the loss of those from Falmouth sadly grieves me. what answer did you get
from Russell
We have had frost & snow in their full beauty – & in truth nothing could be more beautiful. now after many days
rain it is like June. I have sallied out like a bear from his den, & this morning walked round the Lake, which is a work of more
than three hours. If I had but my books I should do very well here, & could with little effort forego society – but it will never
do to live at such a distance from all libraries, hun[MS torn]ring & thirsting for them as I do, & daily as I learn more,
discovering, how much I have yet to learn. however here we are, & here for awhile we must remain – probably till we fix
definitively or till I go once more to Portugal. The wine not yet arrived – I shall write to Liverpool to inquire concerning it, for it
ought to have been here surely by this time. – Inquire of James
Remember me to King – & to Horthow are
you? how I beseech you write – if only to answer that question.