The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Robert Shelton Mackenzie, 25 January 1838
“Keswick, Jan. 25. 1838.
“My dear Sir,
“I am much obliged to you for your good services in one
paper, and the Canadian news in another. It has never been my fortune to be
engaged with any bookseller who made good use of the periodical press to
promote the sale of any of my works. They lay out lavishly in advertisements,
when a tenth part of the money so expended would, if laid out in extracts,
produce ten times the effect.
“I recollect hearing of Miss Edgeworth* at Dr.
* Dr.
Mackenzie had mentioned to Miss Edgeworth that my father was employed in working
up materials for his own life, and had communicated the substance of
her reply, which was as follows:— “I thank you for telling me that Southey is engaged in literary
biography. His life of
Nelson is one of the finest pieces of biography I know.
I have seen its effects on many young minds. I had the
|
![]()
![]()
| 360 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 64. |
![]()
Holland’s, but have no
recollection of seeing her there; but I very well remember seeing her more than
once at Clifton in 1800, at which time her father said to me, ‘Take my word for it. Sir, your
genius is for comedy.’ He formed this opinion, I believe, from
some of the Nondescripts, and one or two Ballads which had just then appeared
in the Annual Anthology. This, I
think, will be worth mentioning in the Preface to the Ballads. When you write
to Miss Edgeworth, present my thanks for her obliging
message, and say that I am pleased at being remembered by her.
“It is mortifying to think how few situations there are
in this country for men of letters,—fewer I believe than in any other
part of civilised Europe,—and what there are, leave the occupant very
little leisure to profit by the stores of learning with which he is surrounded.
The Editorship of the ———, or of any Literary
Journal, would be a more agreeable office than that of a public librarian, in
this respect that your own mind would have more scope. And private librarians
there are very few. Lord Spencer, I
suppose, must have one as a matter of necessity. The only instance within my
knowledge in which a man of letters was invited to such an appointment, not
because the library was extensive enough to need
honour of meeting Mr. Southey
some years since, at our mutual friend’s, Dr. Holland’s, in London.
But such is the nature of that sort of town intercourse, that I had
not opportunity of hearing much of his conversation, and he none of
mine; therefore I can hardly presume that he remembers me. But I
would wish to convey to him, through you, the true expression of my
respect for his character, and admiration of his talents, and of
the use he has made of them.” |
![]()
![]()
| Ætat. 64. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 361 |
![]()
his attendance, but because it was thought desirable for
him, is that of Jeremiah Wiffen, and no
doubt he owed it to his being a native of Woburn. The Duke of Bedford might otherwise never have heard of him, nor
cared for him if he had.
“Farewell, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
Robert Southey.”
Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849)
Irish novelist; author of
Castle Rackrent (1800)
Belinda (1801),
The Absentee (1812) and
Ormond (1817).
Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817)
Irish magnate and writer on education; he published
Practical
Education, 2 vols (1788), and other works in collaboration with his daughter the
novelist.
Sir Henry Holland, first baronet (1788-1873)
English physician and frequenter of Holland House, the author of
Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia etc. during 1812 and
1813 (1814) and
Recollections of Past Life (1872). His
second wife, Saba, was the daughter of Sydney Smith.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
John Charles Spencer, third earl Spencer (1782-1845)
English politician, son of the second earl (d. 1834); educated at Harrow and Trinity
College, Cambridge, he was Whig MP for Northamptonshire (1806-34) and chancellor of the
exchequer and leader of the lower house under Lord Grey (1830).
Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen (1792-1836)
Quaker poet and translator, the brother-in-law of Alaric Alexander Watts and librarian to
the duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey.
The Annual Anthology. 2 vols (Bristol: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1799-1800). A poetical miscellany edited by Robert Southey.
