The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Edith Southey, 10 May 1804
“Palace Yard, May 10. 1804.
“Safe, sound, and rested sufficiently—this is
the best information; and if you can send me as complete an ‘all’s
well’ in return, heartily glad shall I be to receive it.
“On Friday I dined with . . . . . At six that evening
got into the coach; slept at Warrington; breakfasted at Stowe; dined at
Birmingham; slept gt Stratford-upon-Avon; in the dark we reached that place, so
that I could not see Shakspeare’s
grave, but I will return that road on purpose. At five, on Sunday morning, we
arrived in Oxford, and I walked through it at that quiet and delightful hour,
and thought of the past and the present. We did not reach London till after
five last evening, so that I was forty-eight hours in the coach. I landed at
the White Horse Cellar; no coach was to be procured, and I stood in all the
glory of my filth beside my trunk, at the Cellar door, in my spencer of the ![]()
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cut of 1798 (for so long is it since it was made), and my
dirty trowsers, while an old fellow hunted out a porter for me; for about five
minutes I waited; the whole mob of Park loungers and Kensington Garden buckery,
male and female, were passing by in all their finery, and all looked askance on
me. Well, off I set at last, and soon found my spencer was the wonderful part
of my appearance. I stopped at the top of St. James’s Street, just before
a group, who all turned round to admire me, pulled it off, and gave it to my
dirty porter, and exhibited as genteel a black coat as ever Joe
Aikin made. . . . . They have inserted my account of Malthus instead of William Taylor’s, for which, as you
know, I am sorry, and also preferred my account of poor Ritson’s romance to one which Walter Scott volunteered.
Scott, it seems, has shown his civility by reviewing Amadis here and in the Edinburgh, which I had rather he had left
alone; for, though very civil, and in the right style of civility, he yet
denies my conclusion respecting the author, without alleging one argument, or
shadow of argument, against the positive evidence adduced. . . . . Bard Williams is in town, so I shall shake one
honest man by the hand, whom I did not expect to see.
“God bless you!
Yours affectionately,
R. Southey.”
Joseph Ritson (1752-1803)
English antiquary and editor remembered as much for his quarrelsome temperament as for
his contributions to literary history.
Edith Southey [née Fricker] (1774-1837)
The daughter of Stephen Fricker, she was the first wife of Robert Southey and the mother
of his children; they married in secret in 1795.
William Taylor of Norwich (1765-1836)
Translator, poet, and essayist; he was a pupil of Anna Letitia Barbauld and correspondent
of Robert Southey who contributed to the
Monthly Magazine, the
Monthly Review, the
Critical Review, and
other periodicals.
Edward Williams [Iolo Morganwg] (1747-1826)
Welsh poet and antiquary who followed Chatterton's example in forging manuscripts to
support his ideas about medieval history.
