The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 23 November 1816
“I want to raise 30l. a year for
four years from this time, and for this purpose:—
“There is a lad at Richmond school (Yorkshire), by name
Herbert Knowles, picked out from a
humble situation for his genius (he has neither father nor mother), and sent to
this school (a very excellent one) by Dr.
Andrews, Dean of Canterbury, and a ![]()
| 222 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 43. |
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clergyman, by name D’Oyle (so the name is written to
me); if it should turn out to be D’Oyley, of the Bartlett’s Buildings Society and
the Quarterly, so much the better.
From these and another clergyman he was promised 20l. a
year, his relations promised 30l., and Tate the schoolmaster, a good and an able man,
gave him the run of his school (more he could not do, for this valid reason,
that he has a wife and ten children); so his boarding, &c. were to be
provided for. The plan was, that when qualified here, he was to go as a Sizar
to St. John’s; and this has been defeated by the inability of his
relations to fulfil their engagements, owing to unforeseen circumstances,
connected, I suppose, with the pressure of the times.
“In this state of things, Herbert Knowles, God help him, thought the sure way to help
himself was to publish a poem. Accordingly, he writes one, and introduces
himself by letter to me, requesting leave to dedicate it to my worship, if,
upon perusal, I think it worthy, and so forth. Of course I represented to him
the folly of such a scheme, but the poem is brimful of power and of promise. I
have written to his master, and received the highest possible character of him
both as to disposition and conduct; and now I want to secure for him that
trifling assistance, which may put him in the right path, and give him at least
a fair chance of rendering the talents, with which God has endowed him, useful
to himself and beneficial to others.
“Of the 30l. which are wanting
for the purpose, I will give 10l., and it is not for
want of will that I do ![]()
| Ætat. 43. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 223 |
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not supply the whole. Perhaps if
you were to mention the circumstance to —— and to
——, it might not be necessary to go further. He must
remain where he is till October next, and by that time will be qualified for
St. John’s. God bless you!
Gerrard Andrewes (1750 c.-1825)
Educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was rector of St.
James' Westminster (1802-25) and dean of Canterbury (1809-25).
Grosvenor Charles Bedford (1773-1839)
The son of Horace Walpole's correspondent Charles Bedford; he was auditor of the
Exchequer and a friend of Robert Southey who contributed to several of Southey's
publications.
George D'Oyly (1778-1846)
English theologian and domestic chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury who entered into
controversy with Sir William Drummond regarding
Oedipus Judaicus; he
contributed to the
Quarterly Review.
Herbert Knowles (1798-1817)
Yorkshire poet assisted by Robert Southey before his early death; “Stanzas in Richmond
Churchyard” was widely reprinted in the periodicals.
James Tate (1771-1843)
Educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, he was the much-admired headmaster of
Richmond School in Yorkshire (1796-1833) and canon of St Paul's (1833).
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
