The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Walter Savage Landor, 9 February 1809
“You have a bill coming before Parliament. The
Speaker’s secretary happens to be one of my very intimate friends, and
one of the men in the world for whom I have the highest respect. It may be some
convenience to you on this occasion to know him, because he can give you every
necessary information respecting Parliamentary business, and thus, perhaps, ![]()
| 216 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 35. |
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spare you some needless trouble; and there needs no
other introduction than knocking at his door and sending up your name, with
which he is well acquainted. Rickman is
his name; and you will find it over his door, in St. Stephen’s Court, New
Palace Yard, next door to the Speaker’s. I will tell you what kind of man
he is. His outside has so little polish about it, that once having gone from
Christchurch to Pool, in his own boat, he was taken by the
press-gang,—his robust figure, hard-working hands, and strong voice all
tending to deceive them. A little of this is worn off. He is the strongest and
clearest-headed man that I have ever known. ‘Pondere, numero et
mensurâ,’ is his motto; but to all things he carries the
same reasoning and investigating intellect as to mathematical science, and will
find out in Homer and the Bible facts
necessarily to be inferred from the text, and which yet have as little been
supposed to be there intimated, as the existence of metal was suspected in
potash before Davy detected it there. I
have often said that I learnt how to see for the purposes of poetry from Gebir, how to read for the
purposes of history from Rickman. His manners are stoical;
they are like the husk of the cocoa nut, and his inner nature is like the milk
within its kernel. When I go to London I am always his guest. He gives me but
half his hand when he welcomes me at the door, but I have his whole
heart,—and there is not that thing in the world which he thinks would
serve or gratify me that he does not do for me, unless it be something which he
thinks I can as well do myself. The sub-![]()
| Ætat. 35. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 217 |
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ject which he
best understands is political economy. Were there but half a dozen such men in
the House of Commons, there would be courage, virtue, and wisdom enough there
to save this country from that revolution to which It Is so certainly
approaching.
“I should not have written just now, had it not been to
mention Rickman; thinking that you may
find it useful to know him; for I wished when writing to tell you of Kehama; a good many
interruptions have occurred to delay my progress, indispositions of my own, or
of the children,—the latter the only things concerning which I am anxious
over much. At present my wife i seriously ill, and when I shall be sufficiently
at rest to do anything—God knows. Another heat will finish the poem.
“Coleridge’s essay* is expected to start in March.
“My uncle, Mr.
Hill, is settled at his parsonage, at
Staunton-upon-Wye,—in that savage part of the world to which your cedar
plantation will give new beauty, and your name new interest when those cedars
shall have given place to their offspring: it is probable that you have no
other neighbour so well informed within the same distance. Next year, God
willing, I shall travel to the South, and halt with him; it is likely I may
then find you out, either at Llantony or somewhere in the course of a wide
circuit. Meantime I will still hope that some fair breeze of inclination may
send you here to talk about Spain, to plan a great poem, and to cruise with me
about Derwentwater. God bless you!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
Sir Humphry Davy, baronet (1778-1829)
English chemist and physicist, inventor of the safety lamp; in Bristol he knew Cottle,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; he was president of the Royal Society (1820).
Herbert Hill (1750-1828)
Educated at St. Mary Hall, and Christ Church, Oxford; he was Chancellor of the Choir of
Hereford Cathedral, chaplain to the English factory at Lisbon (1792-1807) and rector of
Streatham (1810-28). He was Robert Southey's uncle.
Homer (850 BC fl.)
Poet of the
Iliad and
Odyssey.
John Rickman (1771-1840)
Educated at Magdalen Hall and Lincoln College, Oxford, he was statistician and clerk to
the House of Commons and an early friend of Charles Lamb and Robert Southey.
