The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to John Rickman, 28 January 1820
“Jan. 28. 1820.
“My dear R.,
“. . . . . My knowledge is never so ready as yours. The
less you trust your memory the worse it serves you; and for the last
five-and-twenty years I have hardly trusted mine at all; the consequence has
been, that I must go to my notes for everything, except the general impressions
and conclusions that much reading leaves behind.
“Upon the deficiency of our Ecclesiastical
Establishment and its causes, you will find an historical chapter in my Life of Wesley, agreeing
entirely with your notes in all the points on which we have both touched. Since
that chapter was written I have got at sundry books on the subject,—Kennet’s Case of Impropriations, Henry Wharton’s Defence of Pluralities, Staveley’s History of Churches—each very good and
full of sound knowledge; Eachard’s Contempt of the Clergy and Stackhouse’s Miseries of the Inferior Clergy—books of
a very different character, but of great notoriety in their day; and two recent
publications by a Mr. Yates, which
contain a great deal of information. I was led to them by the mention made of
them in Vansittart’s speech upon the
New Churches. . . . .
“I must borrow from some of the black letter men
Sir Thomas More’s works, which
are tolerably numerous; and when I am in London, I must ask you to turn me
loose for two or three mornings among the statutes at large, for I must examine
those ![]()
| Ætat. 46. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 17 |
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of Henry VII. in
particular. There is something about the process of sheep-farming in those
days, which I am not sure that I understand. The double grievance complained of
is, that it appropriated commons and turned arable land into pasture. Now,
could this latter commutation answer in a country where the demand must have
been as great for meal and malt as for wool and mutton? What I perceive is
this, that down to the union of the Two Roses, men were the best stock that a
lord could have upon his estates; but when the age of rebellions, disputed
succession, and chivalrous wars was over, money became of more use than men;
and the question was not, who could bring most vassals into the field, but who
could support the largest expenditure; and in Sir T.
More’s days the expenditure of the fashionables was
infinitely beyond anything that is heard of in ours. So I take it they did as
—— is now doing: got rid of hereditary tenants who
paid little or nothing, in favour of speculators and large breeders, who could
afford to pay, and might be rack-rented without remorse. I shall put together a
good deal of historical matter in these interlocutions, taking society in two
of its critical periods—the age of the Reformation, and this in which we live.
“God bless you!
John Eachard (1637-1697)
Cambridge-educated divine; he was master of Catharine Hall (1675-97) and vice-chancellor
of Cambridge (1679, 1695).
White Kennett, bishop of Peterborough (1660-1728)
Educated at Oxford, he was a supporter of the Revolution and author of
Compleat History of England (1706); he was made bishop of Peterborough in
1718.
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
English statesman and humanist, Catholic martyr; he was the author of
Utopia (1516).
Thomas Stackhouse (1681 c.-1752)
Educated at St John's College, Cambridge, he was minister of the English church in
Amsterdam and author of religious works.
Thomas Staveley (1626-1684)
Educated at Cambridge and the Inner Temple, he was a barrister and antiquary whose
History of Churches in England was posthumously published in
1712.
Nicholas Vansittart, first Baron Bexley (1766-1851)
Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he was a Pittite MP for Hastings (1796-1802), Old
Sarum (1802-12), East Grinstead (1812), and Harwich (1812-23); he was Chancellor of the
exchequer (1812-23).
Henry Wharton (1664-1695)
A Cambridge-educated divine, he was an important historian of the medieval church in
England, the author of
Anglia sacra (1691).
Richard Yates (1769-1834)
English clergyman and antiquary educated at Bury St Edmunds; he was chaplain at Chelsea
Hospital and secretary to the Literary Fund.
