The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey, “Memoir: The Hills; Parson Collins,” 16 November 1820
Nov. 16th, 1820.
My grandmother’s jointure from her first
husband was 200l. a year, which was probably equivalent
to thrice that sum in these days. The Tylers had from
their father 600l. each. Miss Tyler
lived with her Uncle Bradford, of whom
and of her I shall speak hereafter. I must now speak of the
Hills. My uncle (it is so habitual to me to speak and
write of him, and of him only by that name, κατ΄ έξοχήν,,
that I will not constrain myself to use any farther designation)—my
uncle, and his brother
Joseph, and Edward Tyler went by
day to a school in the village ![]()
| 16 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | |
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kept by one of the strangest
fellows that ever wore a cassock, or took up the trade of tuition. His name was
Collins, he was clever and
profligate, and eked out his ways and means by authorship; scribbling for
inclination, and publishing for gain. One of his works I recollect among my
uncle’s books in Miss Tyler’s possession; its
title is “Hell’s Gates open;” but
not having looked into it since I was a mere boy, I only know that it is
satirical, as the name may seem to import. I sent for another of his
publications some years ago from a catalogue, not as any thing of value, but
because he had been my uncle’s first schoolmaster, and I knew who and
what he was; it is to be wished that every person who knew me would think that
a good reason for buying my works: I should be very much obliged to
them.—It is a little book in the unusual form of a foolscap quarto, and
because it contains one fact which is really curious as matter of history, I
give its title* at the bottom of the page. This publication is in no respect
creditable to its author, and, on the score of decency, highly discreditable to
him. But the fact, which is well worth the two shillings I gave for the book
(though but a halfpenny fact), is, that, as late as the end of George the Second’s reign, or the beginning
of
* Miscellanies in Prose and Verse; consisting of Essays, Abstracts,
Original Poems, Letters, Tales, Translations, Panegyricks,
Epigrams, and Epitaphs. “Sunt bona, sunt quædam mediocria, sunt mala plura; Quæ legis hic aliter non fit, abite,
liber.”— Martial. |
![]() “Things good, things bad, things middling when you
look, You’ll find to constitute, my friends, this
book.” |
![]() By Emanuel
Collins, A. B., late of Wadham College, Oxford. Bristol:
printed by E. Farley, in Small Street. 1762. |
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George the Third’s, there were persons
in Bristol, who, from political scruples of conscience, refused to take
King William’s halfpence, and
these persons were so numerous that the magistrates thought it necessary to
interfere, because of the inconvenience which they occasioned in the common
dealings of trade and of the markets. William’s
copper money was then in common currency, and indeed I myself remember it,
having, between the years 1786 and 1790, laid by some half dozen of his
halfpence with the single or double head, among the foreign pieces and others
of rare occurrence which came within my reach.
Devoid as his Miscellanies are of any merit.
Parson Collins, as he was called
(not in honour of the cloth), had some humour. In repairing the public road,
the labourers came so near his garden wall, that they injured the foundations,
and down it fell. He complained to the waywardens, and demanded reparation,
which they would have evaded if they could, telling him it was but an old wall,
and in a state of decay. “Gentlemen,” he replied,
“old as the wall was it served my purpose. But, however, I have
not the smallest objection to your putting up a second-hand one in its
place.” This anecdote I heard full five-and-thirty years ago from
one of my school-masters, who had been a rival of Collins,
and was satirized by him in the Miscellanies. His
school failed him, not because he was deficient in learning, of which he seems
to have had a full share for his station, but because of his gross and
scandalous misconduct. He afterwards kept something so like an alehouse, that
he got into a scrape with his superiors.
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LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE |
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One of his daughters kept a village shop at Chew Magna in
Somersetshire, and dealt with my father for such things as were in his way. She
used to dine with us whenever she came to Bristol, and was always a welcome
guest for her blunt honest manners, and her comical oddity. Her face was broad
and coarse, like a Tartar’s, but with quick dark eyes and a fierce
expression. She was one of those persons who could say, quidlibet cuilibet de quolibet.
I perceive that I should make an excellent correspondent
for Mr. Urban, and begin to
suspect that I have mistaken my talent, and been writing histories and poems
when I ought to have been following the rich veins of gossip and garrulity. All
this, however, is not foreign to my purpose. For I wish not only to begin
ab ovo, but to describe every
thing relating to the nest. And he who paints a bird’s-nest ought not to
represent it nakedly per se, but
in situ, in its place, and
with as many of its natural accompaniments as the canvas will admit. It is not
manners and fashions alone that change and are perpetually changing with us.
The very constitution of society is unstable; it may,
and in all probability will, undergo as great
alterations, in the course of the next two or three centuries, as it has
undergone in the last. The transitions are likely to be more violent, and far
more rapid. At no very distant time, these letters, if they escape the
earthquake and the volcano, may derive no small part of their interest and
value from the faithful sketches which they contain of a stage of society which
has already passed away, and of a state of things which shall then have ceased
to exist.
Herbert Bradford (1708 c.-1778)
Educated at Trinity College, Oxford, he was curate of Shobdon and vicar of Aylminster (or
Aymestrey) in Herefordshire (1762). After the death of his wife, Robert Southey's Aunt
Tyler was his housekeeper and afterwards his heir.
Emanuel Collins (1711 c.-1762 fl.)
Eccentric Bristol poet and schoolmaster educated at Hart Hall, Oxford; Thomas Chatterton
frequently refers to him.
Herbert Hill (1750-1828)
Educated at St. Mary Hall, and Christ Church, Oxford; he was Chancellor of the Choir of
Hereford Cathedral, chaplain to the English factory at Lisbon (1792-1807) and rector of
Streatham (1810-28). He was Robert Southey's uncle.
Martial (40 c.-104 c.)
Roman epigrammatist; over 1500 of his poems survive.
The Gentleman's Magazine. (1731-1905). A monthly literary miscellany founded by Edward Cave; edited by John Nichols 1778-1826,
and John Bowyer Nichols 1826-1833.
Emanuel Collins (1711 c.-1762 fl.)
Miscellanies: in Prose and Verse, consisting of Essays, Abstracts, Original
Poems, Letters, Tales, Translations, Panegyricks, Epigrams, and Epitaphs. (Bristol: E. Farley, 1762).
