The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Charles Collins, 31 March 1793
“Ledbury, Herefordshire; Easter Sunday, 1793.
“Had I, my dear Collins, the pen of Rousseau, I would attempt to describe the various scenes which
have presented themselves to me, and the various emotions occasioned by them.
On Wednesday morning, about eight o’clock, we sallied forth. My
travelling equipage consisted of my diary, writing-book, pen, ink, silk
handkerchief, and Milton’s Defence. We reached Woodstock to
breakfast, where I was delighted with reading the Nottingham address for peace.
Perhaps you will call it stupidity which made me pass the very walls of
Blenheim, without turning from the road to behold the ducal palace: perhaps it
was so; but it was the stupidity of a democratic philosopher who had appointed
a day in summer for the purpose. . . . . Evesham Abbey detained me ![]()
| Ætat. 19. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 179 |
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some time: it was here where Edward defeated and slew Simon de
Montfort. Often did I wish for your pencil, for never did I
behold so beautiful a pile of ruins. I have seen the Abbeys of Battle and
Malmsbury, but this is a complete specimen of the simple Gothic: a tower, quite
complete, fronts the church, whose roof is dropping down, and admits through
the chasm the streaming light,—the high pointed window frames, where the
high grass waves to the lonely breeze,—and that beautiful moss, which at
once ornaments and carpets the monastic pile, rapt me to other years. I
recalled the savage sons of superstition, I heard the deep toned mass, and the
chaunted prayer for those that fell in fight; but fancy soon recurred to a more
enchanting scene,—‘The Blind Beggar of Bethnal
Green and his Daughter’: you know how intimately connected
with this now mouldering scene that ballad is. Over this abbey I could detain
you, Collins, for ever,—so many, so various, are the
reveries it caused. We reached Worcester to dinner the second day. . . . . Here
we staid three days; and I rode with Mr. Severn to
Kidderminster, with intent to breakfast at ——, but all the family were out. We
returned by Bewdley; there is an old mansion, once Lord Herbert’s, now
mouldering away, in so romantic a situation, that I soon lost myself in dreams
of days of yore,—the tapestried room—the listed fight—the
vassal-filled hall—the hospitable fire—the old baron and his young
daughter;—these formed a most delightful day-dream. How horrid it is to
wake into common life from these scenes! at a moment when you are transported
to ![]()
| 180 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 19. |
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happier times to descend to realities! Could these
visions last for ever! Yesterday we walked twenty-five miles over Malvern Hills
to Ledbury, to Seward’s brothers;
here I am before breakfast, and how soon to be interrupted I know not. Believe
me, I shall return reluctantly to Oxford; these last ten days seem like years
to look back—so crowded with different pictures. . . . . This peripatetic
philosophy pleases me more and more; the twenty-six miles I walked yesterday
neither fatigued me then nor now. Who, in the name of common sense, would
travel stewed in a leathern box when they have legs, and those none of the
shortest, fit for use? What scene can be more calculated to expand the soul
than the sight of nature, in all her loveliest works? We must walk over
Scotland; it will be an adventure to delight us all the remainder of our lives:
we will wander over the hills of Morven, and mark the driving blast, perchance
bestrodden by the spirit of Ossian.”
Charles Collins (1777 c.-1806 c.)
A school friend of Robert Southey at Westminster School; he afterwards attended Christ
Church, Oxford and died young. The Alumni Oxonienses confuses him with his son.
John Milton (1608-1674)
English poet and controversialist; author of
Comus (1634),
Lycidas (1638),
Areopagitica (1644),
Paradise Lost (1667), and other works.
Ossian (250 fl.)
Legendary blind bard of Gaelic story to whom James Macpherson attributed his poems
Fingal and
Temora.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Swiss-born man of letters; author of, among others,
Julie ou la
Nouvelle Heloïse (1761),
Émile (1762) and
Les Confessions (1782).
Edmund Seward (1771 c.-1795)
The son of John Seward of Sapey, Worcestershire; he was educated at Balliol College,
Oxford where he befriended Robert Southey.
