The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Neville White, 14 October 1819
“You need not be warned to remember that all other
considerations ought to give way to that of health. A man had better break a
bone, or even lose a limb, than shake his nervous system. I, who never talk
about my nerves (and am supposed to have none by persons who see as far into me
as they do into a stone wall), know this. Take care of yourself; and if you
find your spirits fail, put off your ordination, and shorten your hours of
study; Lord Coke requires
only eight hours for a student of the law; and Sir
Matthew Hale thought six hours a day as much as any one could
well bear; eight, he said, was too much.
“I was about seven weeks absent from home. ![]()
| 358 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 45. |
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My route was from Edinburgh, Loch Katrine, and thence to
Dunkeld and Dundee, up the east coast to Aberdeen, then to Banff and Inverness,
and up the coast as far as Fleet Mound, which is within sight of the Ord of
Caithness. We crossed from Dingwall to the Western Sea, returned to Inverness,
took the line of the Caledonian Canal, crossed Ballachulish Ferry, and so to
Inverary, Lochlomond, Glasgow, and home. This took in the greatest and best
part of Scotland; and I saw it under the most favourable circumstances of
weather and season, in the midst of a joyous harvest, and with the best
opportunities for seeing everything, and obtaining information. I travelled
with my old friend Mr. Rickman, and
Mr. Telford, the former secretary,
and the latter engineer to the two committees for the Caledonian Canal and the
Highland Roads and Bridges. They also are the persons upon whom the
appropriation of the money from the forfeited estates, for improving and
creating harbours, has devolved. It was truly delightful to see how much
Government has done and is doing for the improvement of that part of the
kingdom, and how much, in consequence of that encouragement, the people are
doing for themselves, which they would not have been able to do without it.
“So long an absence involves me, of course, in heavy
arrears of business. I have to write half a volume of Wesley, and to prepare a long paper for the Q. R. (a Life of Marlborough) before I can set my face toward London. So I shall
probably pass the months of February and March in and about ![]()
| Ætat. 45. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 359 |
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town. . . . A great many Cantabs have been summering here, where they go by
the odd name of Cathedrals.* Several of them brought
introductions to me, and were good specimens of the rising generation. . . .
God bless you, my dear Neville!
Yours affectionately,
R. Southey.”
Sir Matthew Hale (1609-1676)
English jurist, author of
History of the Pleas of the Crown
(1685).
John Rickman (1771-1840)
Educated at Magdalen Hall and Lincoln College, Oxford, he was statistician and clerk to
the House of Commons and an early friend of Charles Lamb and Robert Southey.
Thomas Telford (1757-1834)
Civil engineer who did innovative work with roads, canals, and bridges; he was a friend
of Archibald Alison, Thomas Campbell, and Robert Southey.
John Neville White (1785 c.-1845)
The elder brother of Henry Kirke White; after working in medicine he was educated at
Peterhouse College, Cambridge, and was rector of Rushall (1828) and Tivetshall in Norfolk
(1832-45). The rumor that he died a suicide was denied in the
Gentleman's
Magazine.
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.
