The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to John Wood Warter, 12 November 1835
“Keswick, Nov. 12. 1835.
“Dear Sir,
“I cannot but be much gratified by a letter like
yours, and should be still more so did I think it likely, or even possible,
that I could comply with a request that does me so much honour.
“I know what poems ought to be which are designed for
a public meeting,—terse, pointed, and, above all, short. But I know,
also, that I am given to prolixity, and that if I could find leisure, or muster
resolution to begin upon such a subject, it would lead me astray from the
desired object. The musings of an old man might draw some quiet tears from a
solitary reader, but at such an assembly, they would be as much out of place as
their author himself.
“My time is more fully occupied than can be well
conceived by any one who is not acquainted with my habits of mind and the
number of my pursuits. Moreover, I have outlived the inclination for writing
poetry. To be asked for an epitaph, or to contribute something to a
lady’s album, gives me much more annoyance than I ever felt at hearing
Dr. Vincent say to me,
‘Twenty lines of Homer, and
not go to breakfast.’
“Some causes of the decline at Westminster are of a
permanent nature. Preparatory schools, which were not heard of fifty years ago,
have annihilated the under school. King’s College and the London
University take away a large proportion of the day ![]()
| Ætat. 60. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 279 |
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boys,
who were very numerous in my time. Proprietary schools (another recent
invention) are preferred by anxious parents; and too many patrician ones,
though the father were at Westminster himself, forsake a falling house, and
send their boys to Harrow or to Eton. A school declines faster as soon as it is
known to be declining. The religio
loci, which with you is an hereditary feeling, and with me a
strong one, can do little, I fear, to counteract so many co-operating causes.
“Your father
was before my time. I should love and venerate his name, even did I know
nothing more of him than his kindness to Herbert
Knowles.*
“I was placed at Westminster in the under fourth, a
few weeks before Dr. Smith left it, in
1788. Botch Hayes was then usher of the
fifth, and left it in disgust because he was not appointed under-master. Most
of my contemporaries have disappeared; but in Charles W. W. Wynn and Grosvenor
Bedford, I have still two of my dearest friends; and if I were
beholden to the old school for nothing more than their friendship, I should
have reason enough to bless the day on which I entered it.
Believe me, dear Sir,
Yours with sincere respect,
Robert Southey.”
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.
Samuel Hayes [Botch Hayes] (1749-1795)
Educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was winner of Seatonian
Prizes and usher at Westminster School (1770-88) in Robert Southey's time.
Homer (850 BC fl.)
Poet of the
Iliad and
Odyssey.
Herbert Knowles (1798-1817)
Yorkshire poet assisted by Robert Southey before his early death; “Stanzas in Richmond
Churchyard” was widely reprinted in the periodicals.
Samuel Smith (1732 c.-1808)
Educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was headmaster at Westminster
(1764-88) and prebendary of Peterborough (1787-1808).
William Vincent (1739-1815)
Educated at Westminster and Trinity College, he was headmaster of Westminster School
(1788); his
A Defence of Public Education (1801) ran to three
editions. He was Dean of Westminster (1803-15).
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).
