The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 15 February 1806
“Keswick, February 15. 1806.
“A world of events have taken place since last I
wrote,—indeed so as almost to change the world here. Pitt is dead. Fox and the Grenvilles in place, Wynn Under Secretary of State in the Home
Office. I have reason to expect something; of the two appointments at Lisbon
which would suit me, whichever falls vacant first is asked for me; both are in
Fox’s gift, and Lord as well as Lady
Holland speak for me. It is likely that one or other will be
vacated ere long, and if I should not succeed, then Wynn
will look elsewhere. Something or other will certainly turn up ere it be very
long. I hope also something may some way or other be done for you; you shall
lose nothing for want of application on my part.
“St. Vincent
supersedes Cornwallis in the Channel
fleet: Sir Samuel was made admiral in the
last list of promotions. As for peace or war, one knows not how to speculate.
If I were to guess anything, it ![]()
| 26 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 32. |
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would be, that by way of
getting all parties out of the way with credit, Bonaparte may offer us Malta, which he cannot take, as an
indemnification for Hanover, which we must lose. I should be glad this
compromise were made. You have news enough here to set you in a brown study for
the rest of the day. I will only add an anecdote, which I believe is not in the
papers, and which sailors will like to know. The flag of the Victory was to be buried with Nelson, but the sailors, when it was lowering into the grave,
tore it in pieces to keep as relics. His reward has been worthy of the
country,—a public funeral of course and a monument, besides monuments of
some kind or other in most of the great cities by private subscriptions. His
widow made Countess with 2000l. a year, his brother an Earl with an adequate pension, and 200,000l. to be laid out in the purchase of an estate, never to
be alienated from the family. Well done England!
“As several of my last letters have been directed to
St. Kitts, I conclude that by this time one or other may have reached you.
Yours is good news so far as relates to your health, and to the probability of
going to Halifax,—better summer quarters than the Islands. If you should
go there, such American books as you may fall in with will be curiosities in
England. The New York publications I conclude travel so far north; reviews and
magazines, novels or poetry,—anything of real American growth, I shall be
glad to have. Keep a minute journal there, and let nothing escape you. . . . .
“Did I tell you that I have promised to supply ![]()
| Ætat. 32. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 27 |
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the lives of the Spanish and Portuguese authors in the
remaining volumes of Dr. Aikin’s
great General Biography?
This will not interfere with my own plans; where it does, it is little more
than printing the skeleton of what is hereafter to be enlarged. I can tell you
nothing of the sale of Madoc,
except that Longman has told me nothing,
which is proof enough of slow sale; but if the edition goes off in two years,
or indeed in three, it will be well for so costly a book. There is a reaction
in these things; my poems make me known first, and then I make the poems known:
as I rise in the world the books will sell. I have occasional thoughts of going
on with Kehama now when my
leisure time approaches, to keep my hand in, and to leave it for publication
next winter. Not a line has been added to it since you left me.
“No news yet of Coleridge: we are seriously uneasy about him: it is above two
months since he ought to have been home: our hope is, that finding the
continent overrun by the French, he may have returned to Malta. Edith’s love.
“God bless you, Tom!
John Aikin (1747-1822)
English physician, critic, and biographer, the brother of Anna Laetitia Barbauld; he
edited the
Monthly Magazine (1796-1806).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
Sir William Cornwallis (1744-1819)
He fought in the Seven Years' War and was commander-in-chief in the East Indies 1789-93,
and of the Channel Fleet 1801, 1803-06.
Charles James Fox (1749-1806)
Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out
with Edmund Burke.
Elizabeth Fox, Lady Holland [née Vassall] (1771 c.-1845)
In 1797 married Henry Richard Fox, Lord Holland, following her divorce from Sir Godfrey
Webster; as mistress of Holland House she became a pillar of Whig society.
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
Sir Samuel Hood (1762-1814)
The third son of Samuel Hood of Kingsland, he was an English naval commander and
politician.
John Jervis, earl of St. Vincent (1735-1823)
English Naval officer who defeated the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent in 1797 and was
first lord of the Admiralty 1801-04.
Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842)
A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and
Moore.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
Frances Nelson [née Woolward] (1779-1831)
Born in the West Indies, in 1779 she married Josiah Nisbet MD, and after his death, she
married Horatio Nelson in 1787.
Horatio Nelson, viscount Nelson (1758-1805)
Britain's naval hero who destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile (1798) and
defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar (1805) in which action he was
killed.
William Nelson, first earl Nelson (1757-1835)
The elder brother of Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson; he was a clergyman educated at
Christ's College, Cambridge, raised to the peerage in place of his brother.
William Pitt the younger (1759-1806)
The second son of William Pitt, earl of Chatham (1708-1778); he was Tory prime minister
1783-1801.
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.
Thomas Southey (1777-1838)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; he was a naval captain (1811) and afterwards a
Customs officer. He published
A Chronological History of the West
Indies (1828).
Charles Watkin Williams Wynn (1775-1850)
The son of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, fourth baronet; educated at Westminster and Christ
Church, Oxford, Robert Southey's friend and benefactor was a Whig MP for Old Sarum (1797)
and Montgomeryshire (1799-1850). He was president of the Board of Control (1822-28).
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Madoc. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805). A verse romance relating the legendary adventures of a Welsh prince in Wales and
pre-Columbian America.
