“I have no written form of admission to the office of Laureate, and very well remember being surprised at the thoroughly unceremonious manner of my induction. At the day and hour appointed (a very memorable one, the Prince Regent going to Parliament just after the news of the battle of Leipsic had been made public), I went to a little low, dark room in the purlieus of St. James’s, where a fat old gentleman-usher, in full buckle, administered an oath to me, in presence of a solitary clerk; and that was all, payment of fees excepted, which was not made at the time. Walter Scott, I recollect, was amused at the description which I sent him of this ceremony, and said it was a judgment upon me for inserting among the Notes to the Cid a reflection of Sir John Finett’s upon the ‘superstition of a gentleman-usher.’ Whether any entry was made, and whether I signed my name, I cannot call to mind, it being nine years ago. Gazetted, however, I was, and P. L. I have been from that time. But how can this concern you?
“You know the proverb, that he who is not handsome at
twenty, wise at forty, and rich at fifty, will never be rich, wise, or
handsome. Quoad my
handsomeness—handsome is as handsome does, and whatever I may have been, they
have made a pretty figure of me in magazines. There is a portrait in a German
edition of my smaller poems, which it will
| 130 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 48. |
“When I deliberated, if deliberating it can be called, about the Quarterly Review, the single motive on one side was the desire of having an adequate and sure income, which I have never had since I discontinued the Edinburgh Annual Register, because it ceased to pay me for my work. My establishment requires 600l. a-year, exclusive of other calls. The average produce of my account with Longman is about 200l.; what I derive from the Exchequer you know; the rest must come from the grey goose quill; and the proceeds of a new book have hitherto pretty generally been anticipated. They may float me for a second year perhaps. Roderick did for three years, with the help of the Pilgrimage—then the tide ebbs, and so I go on. At present it is neap tide in the Row. My tale of Paraguay, when I can finish it, will about make it high water.
“This is all very well, while I am well; but if any of
the countless ills which flesh is heir to should affect my health, eyesight, or
faculties, I should instantly be thrown into a state in which my income would
only amount to about half my expenditure.
| Ætat. 48. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 131 |
“I have made a valiant resolution that the produce of this History shall not be touched for current expenses, looking to it always as the work wherewith I was to begin to make myself independent. The Book of the Church I must eat, but I will not eat these Peninsular quartos. The Whigs may nibble at them if they please.
“I have just received an official communication from
Sir William Knighton, which, though
it be marked private, there can be no unfitness in my
communicating to you. It is in these words, ‘I am commanded by the
King to convey to you the estimation in which His Majesty holds your
distinguished talents, and the usefulness and importance of your literary
labours. I am further commanded to add, that His Majesty receives with
great satisfaction the first volume of your valuable work on the late Peninsular
War.’ This is the letter, and at the head of it is
written—‘entirely approved. G.
R.’ Is not this very gracious? and how many
persons there are whom such a Communication would make quite
| 132 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 48. |
