The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 29 August 1798
“Hereford, Aug. 29. 1798.
“Your letter was very agreeable, for we began to doubt
whether or no you were in the land of the living. We have been a fortnight in
this part of the world, part of the time at Dilwyn, the original seat of the
Tylers; and Shobdon was one of the places we visited.
Our absence from home will not exceed a month, and though the time has passed
pleasantly, I shall not be sorry to sit quietly down once more at Martin Hall.
. . . . I have heard high commendation of you, somewhat in a round-about way,
from a Taunton lady, who writes to a friend of hers, ‘The gallant
Southey for me.’ Now,
Tom, who the devil this Taunton damsel is, I could not
find out, for the name was dropt by the way, so you must guess if you can.
![]()
| Ætat. 23. |
OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. |
347 |
![]()
“My Letters* are in the press, and my volume will soon,—it will include
the ‘Vision.’ I have begun my English Eclogues, and written two which I
rather like. My Kalendar also is greatly advanced
since you left us; it now extends to some 1400 lines, and much of the remainder
is planned out. I have learnt to rise early when at home, and written two new
books of ‘Madoc’
wholly, before any one else in the house was up.
“Do you know that I have been caricatured in the Anti-Jacobin Magazine, together
with Lloyd, Lamb, the Duke of Bedford,
Fox, &c. &c. The fellow has
not, however, libelled my likeness, because he did not know it, so he clapped
an ass’s head on my shoulders.
“I have done a great deal in the planning way since I
have been in Herefordshire; you would, I think, be pleased with the skeleton of
a long poem upon the
destruction of the Dom Daniel, of which the outline is almost completed; when
it will get farther I know not. I have much on my hands,—my Kalendar will probably fill three volumes, and the more
the work gets on, the better does it please me.
“Edith has
learnt to ride; she thinks of entering among the light horsewomen, and I hope
to get her the rank of a Corporella.
“Did you hear of the glorious take in about Buonaparte at Bristol? Oh, Tom, I saw the newspaper boy pass by Martin
Hall with a paper cap, inscribed Buonaparte taken! and the bells rung Sunday,
and all day Monday. Tuesday I was at Cottle’s when
![]()
![]()
| 348 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 23. |
![]()
the mail was expected; the volunteers were ready to strike
up, two men kneeling on the church and post-office with the flags ready to let
fly. N. B.—It rained very hard. The four streets full of people, all
assembled to see the triumphal entry of the mail coach, as it was to be crowned
with laurels; you never saw so total a blank as when all proved to be false. .
. . . “I shall now do better one year than the last, so, Tom, let us hope all things, for we have
weathered worse times than we shall ever know again I trust.
God bless you,
R. S.”
Joseph Cottle (1770-1853)
Bristol bookseller and poet; he published the
Lyrical Ballads,
several heroic poems that attracted Byron's derision, and
Early
Recollections, chiefly relating to the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 2 vols
(1837).
Charles James Fox (1749-1806)
Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out
with Edmund Burke.
Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834)
English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of
Essays of Elia published in the
London
Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.
Charles Lloyd (1775-1839)
Quaker poet; a disciple of Coleridge and friend of Charles Lamb, he published
Poetical Essays on the Character of Pope (1821) and other
volumes.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
Francis Russell, fifth duke of Bedford (1766-1802)
The elder son of Francis Russell, marquess of Tavistock; he succeeded his succeeded his
grandfather in the title in 1771 and was a supporter of Charles James Fox.
Edith Southey [née Fricker] (1774-1837)
The daughter of Stephen Fricker, she was the first wife of Robert Southey and the mother
of his children; they married in secret in 1795.
Thomas Southey (1777-1838)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; he was a naval captain (1811) and afterwards a
Customs officer. He published
A Chronological History of the West
Indies (1828).
The Anti-Jacobin. (1797-1798). A weekly magazine edited by William Gifford with contributions by George Canning, John
Hookham Frere, and George Ellis. It was the model for many later satirical
periodicals.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Madoc. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805). A verse romance relating the legendary adventures of a Welsh prince in Wales and
pre-Columbian America.
