The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, jun., 29 November 1829
“Last year we were at this time looking for your
arrival, and well pleased should we all be could we look for it now. I have
been somewhat of a rambler of late. Having paid a short, though long-deferred
visit at Lowther towards the latter end of last month, I joined Henry Coleridge and Sarah at Penrith, on their way to London, at
noon one day, and, on the evening of the next, they dropped me at Ripon. We saw
Rokeby in the morning (a singularly beautiful place), where I called on
Mr. Morritt, whom I
able variety of disposition and genius coming to the same centre of
truth. The older I grow, the more contentment I find in their
writings.” |
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| 78 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 55. |
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had not seen for seventeen years; and, on the way to
Ripon, we saw Richmond.
“My visit near Ripon was to Mrs. Hodson, known as a poetess by her maiden
name of Margaret Holford. One day I dined at Studley, but
it was so wet a day that it was impossible to go to the Abbey, or see the
grounds there. Another day Mr. Hodson
took me to Aldborough, where are many Roman antiquities, and to the place where
Paulinus is said to have baptized some
thousand Saxons in the river Swale. Another day I was at Newby (Lord Grantham’s), where there is a fine
collection of statues. Lady —— had contrived to introduce
herself to me in the morning by a move which it required a good deal of the
effrontery of high life to effect. The most interesting person whom I saw
during this expedition was Mr. Danby of
Swinton Park, a man of very large fortune, and now very old. He gave me a book
of his with the not very apt title of ‘Ideas and Realities;’ detached
thoughts on various subjects. It is a book in which his neighbours could find
nothing to amuse them, or which they thought it behoved them to admire; but I
have seldom seen a more amiable or a happier disposition portrayed than is
there delineated. . . . .
“This was a ten days’ absence. I have since made
a three days’ visit to Colonel
Howard at Levens, between Kendal and Milnthorpe, whom I knew by
the name of Greville Upton when he was in college at
Westminster, and had not seen since. He married an heiress, and took her name,
taking with it ![]()
| Ætat. 55. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 79 |
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four large estates, with a mansion upon
each, in Westmoreland, Staffordshire, Surrey, and Norfolk. Such fortune has not
often been so bestowed upon one who has made so good use of it. Levens is an
old house of Elizabeth’s age, and fitted up as in that age, with carved
chimney-pieces, oak wainscots, and one room is hung with gilt leather. The
gardens are in the old fashion, and, perhaps, the best specimen now remaining
of their kind. They are full of yew trees cut into all imaginable and
unimaginable shapes. One of them is called Dr.
Parr, from its likeness to his wig. A guest who dines there for
the first time is initiated by a potent glass (called the Levens’
constable) of a liquor named Morocco, the composition of which is a family
secret. It is like good strong beer, with a mixture of currant wine. . . . .
“God bless you, my dear Herbert!
Henry Nelson Coleridge (1798-1843)
The nephew and literary executor of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; he was a barrister and
reviewer for the
British Critic and
Quarterly
Review.
Sara Coleridge (1802-1852)
The daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; in 1829 she married Henry Nelson Coleridge
(1798-1843); she translated, edited her father's works, and wrote for the
Quarterly Review.
William Danby (1752-1833)
The son of William Danby DD of Swinton Park, Yorkshire; educated at Eton and Christ's
College, Cambridge, he was an author and high sheriff of Yorkshire (1784).
Herbert Hill, junior (1810-1892)
The son of Robert Southey's uncle Herbert Hill; educated at Winchester and New College,
Oxford, he married Southey's daughter Bertha in 1839 and was assistant master at Rugby
(1836-39) and master of King's School, Warwick (1842-76).
Septimus Hodson (1768-1833)
Educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he was rector of Thrapstone,
Northamptonshire (1789-1828); his third wife was the poet Margaret Holford.
Margaret Hodson [née Holford] (1778-1852)
English poet popular in the interval between Anna Seward and Felicia Hemans; she
published
Wallace, or, The Fight of Falkirk (1809) and
Margaret of Anjou (1816). She married Septimus Hodson in
1826.
Hon. Fulke Greville Howard (1773-1846)
Of Levens and Castle Rising, the son of Clotworthy Upton, first Baron Templetown; he was
educated at Westminster School where he was a contemporary of Robert Southey.
Samuel Parr (1747-1825)
English schoolmaster, scholar, and book collector whose strident politics and assertive
personality involved him in a long series of quarrels.
Frederick John Robinson, first earl of Ripon (1782-1859)
Educated at Harrow and St. John's College, Cambridge, he was a Tory MP for Carlow
(1806-07) and Ripon (1807-27), Chancellor of the Exchequer (1823-27), and prime minister
(1827-28) in succession to Canning.
