“When I remember how many letters I wrote to you on your last West Indies station, and that you never received one of the number, it seems as if this, too, was to be sent upon a forlorn hope. However, I will now number what I send, that you may see if any be missing, and make inquiry for them.
“I have wanted you to help me in weighing anchor for
Madoc, and for want of
you have been obliged to throw into shade, what else should have been brought
out in strong light. Had you been at my elbow, he should have set sail in a
very seaman-like manner; if this reaches you, it may yet be in time for you to
tell me what I should say to express that the sails are all ready for sailing next day. I am afraid bent
is not the word, and have only put it in just to keep the place, designing to
omit it and clap some general phrase in, unless you can help me out in time.
The whole first part of the poem is now finished; that is,
| 262 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 29. |
“Of my own goings on, I know not that there is
anything which can be said. Imagine me in this great study of mine from
breakfast till dinner, from dinner till tea, and from tea till supper, in my
old black coat, my corduroys alternately with the long worsted pantaloons and
gaiters in one, and the green shade, and sitting at my desk, and you have my
picture and my history. I play with Dapper, the dog,
down stairs, who loves me as well as ever Cupid did,
and the cat, upstairs, plays with me; for puss, finding my room the quietest in
the house, has thought proper to share it with me. Our weather has been so wet,
that I have not got out of doors for a walk once in a month. Now and then I go
down to the river, which runs at the bottom of the orchard, and throw stones
till my arms ache, and then saunter back again. James
Lawson, the carpenter, serves me for a
Juniper; he has made boards for my papers, and a
screen, like those in the frame, with a little shelf to hold my ivory knife,
&c., and is now making a little table for Edith, of which I shall probably make the most use. I rouse the
house to breakfast every morning and qualify myself for a boatswain’s
place by this practice; and thus one day passes like another, and never did the
days appear to pass so fast. Summer will make a difference. Our neighbour
General Peche will
| Ætat. 29. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 263 |
