Charles Cuthbert Southey: Life of Robert Southey

“. . . . . I know no one who has been pursued by such a series of unmerited afflictions: one may use such language in speaking of calamities that are brought on by the actions of our fellow-creatures. . . . .

If I had been called to Cheltenham, I should certainly have gone on to Bristol. But as yet I have
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received no further intelligence from thence, than a few lines from the poor old Doctor’s secretary, informing me of his death, and saying that when the trustees arrived, official information would be sent to me.* I persuade myself that it is not likely I shall be called from home, disagreeable as it would be, and especially inconvenient at this time.

“No man can care much about public affairs when his own troubles are pressing heavily upon his heart and mind. But I greatly fear that the time is hastening on when public concerns will affect the vital interests of every individual. Wordsworth is made positively unhappy by this thought. I should be so, if my mind were not constantly occupied, for I see most surely that nothing but the special mercy of Providence can save us from a revolution; and I feel also that we have much more reason to fear the Almighty’s justice, than to rely upon his mercy, in this case; yet I rely upon it, and keep my heart firm in that reliance.

“Feb. 20.

“Yesterday brought me the expected letter from Dr. Bell’s trustees. He has left me 1000l. He had left me also his furniture, &c., but this he revoked in
* “I have just received news of Dr. Bell’s death from his faithful secretary Davies, who says that ‘official information will be dispatched to me when the trustees arrive.’ When it comes, I fear it may call me to Cheltenham; but certainly I shall not go if the business can be done by proxy. Poor old man, he is now at rest from his discovery, which was a perpetual torment to him whatever good it may ultimately produce to others. But I had a great liking for the better parts of his strongly marked character; and his death, though expected, and for his own sake long to have been desired, takes full possession of my mind just now and troubles it.”—To H. Taylor, Esq., Jan. 31.

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a codicil a few days before his death, giving some unintelligible reason for so doing, and adding at the same time a bequest of 100l. to my dear Isabel*, as his godchild; his memory, therefore, had completely failed him at that time. The legacy to me is the largest he has left; and most welcome it is, as something on which I may rely (as far as anything dependent upon the fearful insecurity of human life, and of all our social institutions in these days, may be relied on,) for Cuthbert’s support at Oxford; it relieves me from any difficulty respecting means, if he and I should live so long, and this frame of things should be kept together.

“I collect from the trustees’ letter, that Dr. Bell changed his intention concerning the publication of his works, which he had desired Wordsworth and myself to superintend; but it seems he still wished and expected that I should draw up an account of his life. Upon this I shall have further information, no doubt, in due time. Poor man! the last letter I received from him told me that he had bequeathed to me his furniture, and that therefore I must be prepared to set off for Cheltenham as soon as I should be informed of ‘an event which could not be far distant.’ If I had done so, how uncomfortably should I have felt on my arrival there! . . . . God bless and support you, my dear friend, and bring you through all difficulties into a peaceful port.

Yours most affectionately,

R. S.”

“Keswick, March 7. 1632.

“My dear H. T.,

“. . . . . Most men play the fool in some way or other, and no man takes more delight in playing it than I do, in my own way. I do it well with children, and not at all with women, towards whom, like John Bunyan, ‘I cannot carry myself pleasantly,’ unless I have a great liking for them. Most men, I suspect, have different characters even among their friends,—appearing in different circles in different lights, or rather showing only parts of themselves. One’s character being teres atque rotundus, is not to be seen all at once. You must know a man all round—in all moods and all weathers—to know him well; but in the common intercourse of the world, men see each other in only one mood—see only their manners in society, and hear nothing that comes from any part lying deeper than the larynx. Many people think they are well acquainted with me who know little more of me than the cut of my jib and the sound of my voice.

“The probabilities, I think, are much against the Durham scheme. It will not appear to them worth their while to make it worth mine; they will consider what, according to common prudence, they might be expected to afford; as I must what, upon the same ground, I ought to accept. The two prudentials are
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not likely to agree, and they will never know what they lose in failing to engage me, for were I to live and do well, my work would be worth far more to them than my name. God bless you!

R. S.”

“Keswick, April 15. 1832.

“My dear G.,

“There are Greek and English Lexicons now; but if your nephew is intended for a public school, the better way, as he would be a day-boy (which I look upon to be the greatest of all advantages), would be to send him to Westminster as soon as he was fit for the second form: I do not say for the petty, because the work of the first two years may probably be as well got at home in six months. Had I lived in London, Cuthbert should certainly have gone to Westminster as a day-boy. There is in schemes of education, as in every thing else, a choice of evils: no safe process—that is impossible. My settled opinion is, that the best plan is a public school, where the boy can board at home: upon this I have no doubt. When he cannot, the question between public and private education is so questionable, that in most cases a feather might turn the scale. With me it was turned by the heavy weights of distance and expense, and the consideration that life is uncertain; and by educating my son at home, I was at least sure of this, that his years of boyhood would be happy.

“Your godson, whom you are not likely to see unless you come to Keswick, is nearly, if not quite, as tall as his godfather, though he completed his thirteenth year only in February last. His knowledge of Greek is about as much as I carried with
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me into the fifth form; his Latin rather less than I brought to Westminster, the truth being that I am not qualified to teach him either critically; but what he lacks can be superadded easily in due time. We went through the Pentateuch (omitting the Levitical parts), Joshua, and Judges, in your present of the Septuagint, and read the same portion of the Bible on the same day in German and Dutch. Having got so far, I substituted Herodotus for the Septuagint, and added the Swedish to our biblical readings. We now read Herodotus and Homer on alternate days. God alone knows what may be appointed for him or for me. . . . .

“I am reviewing Lord Nugent’s Life of Hampden, with the intention of winding up with some remarks on the present state of affairs. One of the amiable correspondents of the Times asks, in to-day’s paper, whether I am one of the Duke of Wellington’s advisers!—a question which shows how much this fellow knows either about the Duke or me.

“God bless you!

R. S.”

“The Cattery of Cats’ Eden congratulate the Cat-without-a-name upon his succession in Stafford Row.”

“Keswick, July 30. 1832.

“My dear Sir,

“This morning I received your St. John in Patmos, two months after the date of the note which accompanied it: this is mentioned, that you may not think I have been slow in acknowledging and thanking you for it. I have just read the poem through, and
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with much pleasure. Yours I should have known it to have been by the sweet and unsophisticated style; upon which I endeavoured, now almost forty years ago, to form my own. You have so blended the episodical parts, that they do not in any degree disturb the solemn and mysterious character of the whole.

“You will not, I am sure, suppose that I could for even a moment feel hurt by your remarks in the preface. After haying reviewed in the Quarterly Review Grahame’s Georgics, Montgomery’s Poems, and his World before the Flood, and Lander’s Count Julian, I found it necessary to resolve that I would not review the work of any living poet. Applications to me from strangers, and from others in all degrees of acquaintanceship, were so frequent, that it became expedient to be provided with a general reason for refusing, which could offend no one; there was no other means of avoiding offence. Many would otherwise have resented the refusal, and more would have been more deeply displeased if they had not been extolled according to their own estimate of their own merits. From this resolution I did not consider myself as departing when I drew up the account of Mary Colling; her story and her character interested me greatly, and would, I thought, interest most readers. I wished to render her some service, and have the satisfaction of knowing that this has been in some measure effected. It was a case wherein a little praise, through that channel, might be the means of producing some permanent benefit to one who has gentle blood in her veins, and whose sweet
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countenance, if you look at her portrait, will say more in her favour than any words of mine could do.

“I have no wish to encourage the growth of humble authors, still less of adventurers in literature, God knows. But I earnestly wish, especially in an age when all persons can read, to encourage in all who have any love of reading that sort of disposition which would lead them to take pleasure in your poems, and in mine, and in any which are addressed, as ours always have been, to the better feelings of our nature. The tendency of our social system has long been to brutalise the lower classes, and this it is that renders the prospect before us so fearful. I wish to see their moral and intellectual condition as much as possible improved; it seems to me that great improvement is possible, and that in bettering their condition the general good is promoted.

“Would that there were a hope of seeing you here, that I might show you this lake and these mountains, and these books, and talk with you upon subjects which might make us forget that we are living in the days of William IV., Earl Grey, the Times newspaper, and the cholera morbus. God save the first, and deliver us from the rest!

Believe me, my dear Sir,
Yours, with sincere respect and regard,

Robert Southey.”

“Keswick, Oct 15. 1882.

“My dear R.,

“I have been working hard upon a paper on French affairs, which I shall finish to-morrow. A pamphlet by Prince Polignac furnishes the text and much of the matter for it. This was sent me by Sir Robert Adair, who is his particular friend, and I have since, through the same channel, had a letter from the poor prisoner himself.* Adair has also sent me a curious pamphlet, written to vindicate the Belgian revolution from the disgrace of having anything in common with the last French one.

“It is very difficult to foresee anything in the present state of Europe. Nothing could have seemed more improbable than the preservation of peace thus long. If it be still preserved, the struggle between the Government and the Chamber will go on till the nation distinctly see that it is, in fact, a question whether there is to be any government or none; and then the least unlikely termination would be, that Soult would enact the part of Monk, and Louis Philippe make a merit of having acted as king, in order to preserve the monarchy till he could safely transfer it to the legitimate prince. To this, or to another military despotism, it must come.

“Last night we had the M. of Hastings here, who voted with the Ministry, and now apprehends
* See Appendix.

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the consequences. Wynn thinks there is a reaction in the country; C——, on the contrary, believes revolution to be imminent and inevitable. I will not say that every thing depends upon the new elections, but much certainly does; and I suspect that the Radicals, when the time comes, will be found much more alert and active than their opponents are prepared to expect, or, perhaps, to withstand. We are only sure of one Conservative member from this county, Matthias Attwood’s success being doubtful.

“Oddly enough, while American notions of government are obtaining ground in Europe, the United States themselves seem likely to be disunited, and give practical proof of the instability of any such system. No doubt our West Indian planters would call upon America to receive them into the union, and be received accordingly, if the slave question were not likely to be the cause of quarrel between the southern states and the Congress. Most likely I shall write a paper upon this question for the Christmas number. From the way in which the emancipators on the one hand, and the colonial assemblies on the other, are proceeding, we shall soon have those islands in the condition of St. Domingo. . . . .

“Murray has published a letter to himself by Lord Nugent, which letter abuses me by name, à-la-William Smith. It has been published more than a fortnight, and he has never sent it me, nor do I know anything of it, except at second hand from a newspaper. If I should think it worth while to take any notice of this attack, it will be very briefly, and
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through the newspapers; bat I must make myself angry before I can bestow even the little time upon such a business which it would require.

“God bless you!

R. S.”

“Keswick, March 6. 1833.

“My Lord,

“I am greatly obliged to you for your edition of Burnet’s Lives, made still more valuable by the Introduction, the Prefaces, and the Notes with which they are enriched. No books are read with more interest than such as this, and none are likely to do so much good.

“The Americans seem more awake to the uses of exemplary biography than we are. They lose no opportunity of pronouncing funeral orations; and in what may be called the ordination charge of an Unitarian minister, the old pastor recommends that biographical discourses should be delivered from the pulpit, occasionally instead of sermons, instancing as fit subjects such men as Watts, Lindsey, and Howard. This will remind you of the Roman Catholic practice to which we are indebted for such books as the Flos Sanctorum.

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“But the American Unitarians come nearer to the Romanists on more dangerous ground. Two volumes have lately been sent me from New England of sermons by James Freeman, a very old and very amiable man, exceedingly beloved and reverenced by his friends and his flock. Had they come to me as a collection of essays, in which anything religious or devotional might or might not incidentally be introduced, I should have been pleased with the happy disposition that they indicate, the benevolent spirit that pervades them, and their occasional felicity of expression, and I may add with what might then have deserved to be called, their unobtrusive piety. But as discourses from a grey-haired pastor to his people, I could not peruse them without sorrow; nor, indeed, sometimes without astonishment. He tells his congregation, ‘Alms, when they are bestowed from pious and benevolent principles, will carry you to Heaven: they will deliver you from death, and never suffer you to descend into a place of darkness. This is rendering, it may be said, the path to everlasting happiness very plain and easy. True; but I do not render it easier and plainer than the Scriptures have made it.’

“No wonder that the Roman Catholics increase at Boston, as they do in Holland, and elsewhere, wherever such Christianity is preached. ‘The Almighty,’ he says, ‘sent down from His throne such men as Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton to enlighten the world.’

“In an Ordination Charge he says, ‘In this age of the Church it is unnecessary that you should read
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the Fathers, except for improvement in morals and devotion, because others have read them for you, and have extracted from them almost all the facts that they contain.’

“These are some of the fruits which Puritanism has brought forth in America. It seems as if in our own country the experiment was about to be repeated of improving the vineyard, by breaking down the fences, and letting the cattle and the wild beasts in. The crisis is probably very near at hand: I see my way much more distinctly into it than out of it. For the last two years it has been evident that O’Connell has formed an alliance offensive and defensive with the political unions. He relies upon them either to frighten the Ministers out of their coercive measures by a demonstration of physical force, embodied, mustered, and ready to take the field; or, if they fail in this, he expects them to hoist the tricolour flag, and march upon London whenever he gives the signal for rebellion in Ireland. Brandreth’s insurrection in 1817, the projected expedition of the Blanketeers a little later, and the Bristol riots, were all parts of a widely concerted scheme, which has only been from time to time postponed till a more convenient season, and is now thoroughly matured, and likely to be attempted upon a great scale whenever the leaders of the movement think proper. I am not without strong apprehensions that before this year passes away, London may have its Three Days.

“But earnestly as such a crisis is to be deprecated, I do not fear the result. It may even come in time
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to save us from the otherwise inevitable overthrow of all our institutions by the treachery and cowardice of those who ought to uphold them. The Whigs will never give over the work of destruction which they have so prosperously begun, till the honester Destructives are armed against them, and threaten them with their due reward. The sooner therefore that it comes to this, the better.

“Meantime there is a comfort in seeing by the London election that a great change has taken place in public opinion there: there is a comfort in knowing that the Church of England and of Ireland could never at any time have been better able to bear hostile inquiry, and to defend themselves than now; above all, there is a never-failing comfort in a constant reliance upon Providence, and this, God be thanked, I am enabled to feel.

“I beg my kindest remembrances to Mr. Forster; and remain, with the greatest respect.

My Lord,
Your Lordship’s obliged and obedient servant,

Robert Southey.”

“Keewick, April 17. 1833.

“My dear Sir,

“I am much obliged to you for your History. It reached me on Monday evening last, so that I have only had time to run through the whole, and peruse those parts which arrested me.

“A better book could not possibly have been made upon that subject within the same limits; nor could the subject be treated in a manner more likely to be in the highest degree useful,—if anything in these times could be addressed with effect to the understanding of an infatuated nation.

“The events which you have so vividly described, are fresh in my memory, for I was just old enough to take the liveliest interest in them as they occurred; and young enough for that interest to have all the eagerness of hope. I thought as highly of the Girondistes as you have spoken of them, but was too young and too ignorant to see their errors as you have done. I entered, therefore, warmly into their views; and no public event ever caused me so much pain as the fate of Brissot and his associates,—till I lived to see our own constitution destroyed. Few of that party hold the same place in my estimation now—perhaps only Isnard and Vergniaud, for their speeches (which is all that we know of them), and Madame Roland, whose great qualities cannot be estimated too highly. But of the rest, too many were as profligate as they were superficial and irreligious.
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Brissot, who was in some respects the best of them, has been greatly lowered in my mind since I read two volumes of his Memoirs, and a collection of nine volumes of his works. He was an amiable man in his private relations; but as a man of letters not above the third or fourth rank; and that enthusiasm which sometimes supplied to him the place of sound principle could not supply his want of judgment.

“I do not see the name of Helen Maria Williams among your references; if you have not seen her letters you would find in them more particulars concerning this party than in any other work that has fallen in my way. With all the contemporary works I am well acquainted; later ones I have not happened to meet with, and have not sought. The best that I have met with relating to the early period is Puisaye’s,—the two or three first volumes,—his latter volumes relate chiefly to the miserable intrigues among the emigrants; but there is some very interesting matter respecting his own life among the Chouans. I have been twice in company with Puisaye, and never saw a finer countenance, nor one that I could more readily have confided in.

“Are you accurate as to Barrere’s death?* I very well remember that in 1805 or 1806 the newspapers said he was attached to the French embassy at Lisbon; and though this was not the case, the impression upon my mind is, that he was employed under Buonaparte’s government.

* This observation was quite just, and was corrected in the next edition.—A. A.

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OF ROBERT SOUTHEY.

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“You have a good word for General Biron at his death. If this were the ci-devant Duc, he was altogether unworthy of it, having been one of the most profligate and thoroughly worthless of the French nobility.

“Danton and Robespierre quarrelled at one of the political clubs, before the 10th of August: high words ended in a challenge: they met, and the duel was prevented by the interference of an Englishman, who went out as a second to the one, and represented to them how injurious it would be to the cause of liberty if either of them should fall. That Englishman was the present James Watt of Soho; and from him I heard this remarkable fact.

“But I must conclude, once more thanking you for the book, which is everything that such a book ought to be in all respects, except that for my own gratification I wish this part of your subject had been extended to four volumes, instead of being compressed into two; the booksellers and the public would no doubt be of a different opinion, but it is because men are too busy or too idle to read what ought to be read, that they who engage in state affairs are ignorant of what they ought to know; and hence the consequences that we have seen, and those which we may foresee.

“I very well remember, when you and Mr. Hope came in upon our cheerful party. Our friend Mr. Telford, whom I saw here last, was depressed in spirits by his growing deafness; this was more than two years ago, and I fear that the cause is not likely to be removed at his age.

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“Should any circumstance lead you into this country, I hope you will give me an opportunity of shaking you once more by the hand, and own me a fellow-labourer in the field of history.

Believe me, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,

Robert Southey.”

To Grosvenor C. Bedford, Esq.

“Keswick, June 3. 1833.

“My dear Allan,

“Thank you in my own name, and in my daughter Bertha’s, for the completing volumes of your Painters. The work is very far the best that has been written for the Family Library, and will continue to be reprinted long after all the others with which it is now associated. I do not except the Life of Nelson from this; the world cares more about artists than admirals after the lapse of centuries; and as long as the works of those artists endure, or so long as their conceptions are perpetuated by engravings, so long will
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a lively interest be excited by their lives, when written as you have written them.

“Give your history of the rustic poetry of Scotland the form of biography, and no bookseller will shake his head at it, unless he is a booby. People who care nothing about such a history would yet be willing to read the lives of such poets, and you may very well introduce all that you wish to bring forward under cover of the more attractive title. The biography of men who deserve to be remembered always retains its interest.

“Are you right as to Lawrence’s birthplace? The White Hart, which his father kept at Bristol, is in the parish of Christ Church, not St. Philip’s, which is a distant part of the city.

“Sir George Beaumont’s marriage was in 1774, the year of my birth; he spent that summer here, and Faringdon was with him part of the time, taking up their quarters in the little inn by Lowdore. Hearne, also, was with him here, either that year or soon afterwards, and made for him a sketch of the whole circle of this vale, from a field called Crow Park. Sir George intended to build a circular banqueting room, and have this painted round the walls. If the execution had not always been procrastinated, here would have been the first panorama. I have seen the sketch, now preserved on a roll more than twenty feet in length.

“Sir George’s death was not from any decay. His mother lived some years beyond ninety, and his health had greatly improved during the latter years of his life. He was never better than when last in
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this country, a very few months before his death. The seizure was sudden: after breakfast, as he was at work upon a picture, he fainted; erysipelas presently showed itself upon the head, and soon proved fatal.

“I know that he painted with much more ardour in his old age than at other times of his life, and I believe that his last pictures were his best. In one point I thought him too much of an artist: none of his pictures represented the scene from which he took them; he took the features, and disposed them in the way which pleased him best. Whenever you enter these doors of mine, you shall see a little piece of his (the only one I have), which perfectly illustrates this: the subject is this very house, and scarcely any one object in the picture resembles the reality. His wish was, to give the character,—the spirit of the scene. But whoever may look upon this picture hereafter, with any thought of me, will wish it had been a faithful portrait of the place.

“He was one of the happiest men I ever knew, for he enjoyed all the advantages of his station, and entered into none of the follies to which men are so easily tempted by wealth and the want of occupation. His disposition kept him equally from all unworthy and all vexatious pursuits; he had as little liking for country sports as for public business of any kind, but had a thorough love for art and nature. And if one real affliction or one anxiety ever crossed his path in any part of his life, I never heard of it. I verily believe that no man ever enjoyed the world more; and few were more humbly, more wisely, more
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religiously prepared for entering upon another state of existence.

“He became acquainted with Coleridge here, before I came into this country; this led to his friendship with Wordsworth, and to his acquaintance with me (for more than acquaintance it can hardly be called). He has lodged more than once in this house, when it was in an unfinished state: this very room he occupied before the walls were plastered.

“Next to painting and natural scenery, he delighted in theatricals more than in anything else. Few men read so well, and I have heard those who knew him intimately say, that he would have made an excellent actor.

“Thank you for your good word in the Athenæum. I had not heard of it before: little of the good or evil which is said of me reaches this place; and as I believe the balance is generally largely on the wrong side (enmity being always more on the alert than friendship), my state is the more gracious. The new edition of Byron’s works is, I think, one of the very worst symptoms of these bad times.

“I am glad to hear of your sons’ welfare; they will all find your good name useful to them through life.

“Since this letter was begun, the influenza laid hold on me and all my children; all except Cuthbert had it very severely. I was completely prostrated by it for a full week, and it has left me emaciated and weak, nor, indeed, is my chest yet completely rid of it However, I begin to walk about, and have resumed my usual habits.

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“God bless you, my dear Allan! My daughter joins in kind remembrances to Mrs. Cunningham. Believe me always,

Yours affectionately,

Robert Southey.

“Keswick, Oct 22. 1833.

“My dear Lord Mahon,

“Long ago I ought to have thanked you for your paper, which had been so unbecomingly interpolated in the Quarterly Review. And now, having just completed that portion of our naval history which has never been brought together, I was about to have done this with my first leisure, when you give me a second occasion for thanks, both on my own part and on Cuthbert’s, whose eyes were lit up upon finding himself thus unexpectedly remembered.

“The French play is French indeed; and in its own way far exceeds Calderon’s Cisma de Inglaterra. I shall place it among my curiosities. The Loi sur l’instruction Primaire I am glad to possess, because the subject must, ere long, take up much of my thoughts, when preparing for the press the Life and Correspondence of Dr. Bell. This task will lead me to inquire into the history of scholastic education, its present state, primary schools, Sunday schools,—the good and the evil,—the too much and the too little. There are no other means by which the cha-
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racter of society might so beneficially and so surely be changed; but even in this the practical difficulties are so many, that the man must have either great warmth of enthusiasm, or great strength of principle, who is not rendered almost hopeless when he contemplates them.

“Your account of the state of affairs in France is almost what I should hare wished it to be. Louis Philippe, in his own country, at least, is a Conservative; and if the Duc de Bordeaux ever succeeds to the throne (which, if he lives, I think, as well as hope, he will), it were better both for him and for France that some years should have their course before this restoration takes place;—better for him, because he must acquire more knowledge in his present condition than he possibly could as a reigning prince; and better for France, because in a few years death will have removed those persons whom it might be alike injurious to punish or to pardon. When vengeance has been long delayed, its just infliction seldom fails to call forth compassion, even for great criminals: and a still worse effect has followed in all restorations when old adherents are neglected, and old enemies not only forgiven, but received into favour, and trusted and rewarded. For these reasons, and because the citizen king will govern with a stronger hand than the legitimate king, I incline to wish that Louis Philippe may reign long to curb his subjects, and break in the people to habits of obedience, by the vigorous exercise of his power.

“This reminds me of the spirit which is breathed in the Corn Law Rhymes. I have taken those
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poems as the subject of a paper for the Christmas Review, not without some little hope of making the author reflect upon the tendency of his writing. He is a person who introduced himself to me by letter many years ago, and sent me various specimens of his productions, epic and dramatic. Such of his faults in composition as were corrigible, he corrected in pursuance of my advice, and learnt, in consequence, to write as he now does, admirably well, when the subject will let him do so. I never saw him but once, and that in an inn in Sheffield, when I was passing through that town. The portrait prefixed to his book seems intentionally to have radicalised, or rather ruffianised, a countenance which had no cut-throat expression at that time. It was a remarkable face, with pale grey eyes, full of fire and meaning, and well suited to a frankness of manner, and an apparent simplicity of character such as is rarely found in middle age, and more especially rare in persons engaged in what may be called the warfare of the world. After that meeting I procured a sizarship for one of his sons; and the letter which he wrote to me upon my offering to do so, is a most curious and characteristic production, containing an account of his family. I never suspected him of giving his mind to any other object than poetry, till Wordsworth put the Corn Law Rhymes into my hands; and then, coupling the date of the pamphlet with the power which it manifested, and recognising also scenery there which he had dwelt upon in other poems, I at once discovered the hand of my pupil. He will discover mine in the advice which I shall
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give him. It was amusing enough that he should have been recommended to my notice as an uneducated poet in the New Monthly Magazine.

“In such times as these, whatever latent evil there is in a nation is brought out. This man appeared always a peaceable and well-disposed subject, till Lord Grey’s ministry, for their own purposes, called upon the mob for support; and then, at the age of fifty, he let loose opinions which had never before been allowed to manifest themselves, and the fierce puritanism in which he had been bred up burst into a flame. . . . .

And believe me always,
Yours with sincere regard,

Robert Southey.”

“Keswick, Nov. 16. 1833.

“My dear Sir,

“The ‘suggestions,’* which I have to thank for your welcome letter, came to me about three weeks ago, from Mr. Charnock of Ripon, through Mrs. Hodson—the Margaret Holford of former days.
* “The ‘Suggestions’ here spoken of were entitled—‘Suggestions for the Promotion of an Association of the Friends of the Church;’ but the association never was formed. The practical result was ‘The Oxford Tracts;’ but the whole theory and management fell into other (and exclusive) hands; so that any direct influence and work of the ‘Suggestions’ must ever remain unknown and undefined. Perceval’s and Palmer’s Narratives of the Theological Movement tell all that is to be told on the subject.”—J. M.

222 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE Ætat. 58.
With whom they have originated I have not heard, nor do I sufficiently understand what is hoped for from the proposed association, or how it can act. But that any association formed on such principles will have my cordial good wishes, and all the support that I can give it in my own way, you need not be assured.

“Among the many ominous parallelisms between the present times and those of Charles the First, none has struck me more forcibly than those which are to be found in the state of the Church; and of those, this circumstance especially—that the Church of England at that time was better provided with able and faithful ministers than it had ever been before, and is in like manner better provided now than it has ever been since. I have been strongly impressed by this consideration; it has made me more apprehensive that no human means are likely to avert the threatened overthrow of the Establishment; but it affords also more hope (looking to human causes) of its restoration.

“The Church will be assailed by popular clamour and seditious combinations; it will be attacked in Parliament by unbelievers, half-believers, and misbelievers, and feebly defended by such of the Ministers as are not secretly or openly hostile to it. On our side we have God and the right. Οίστέον καί έλπίστεον must be our motto, as it was Lauderdale’s in his prison. We, however, are not condemned to inaction; and our hope rests upon a surer foundation than his.

“He, no doubt, built his hopes upon the strange
Ætat. 58. OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. 223
changes which take place in revolutionary times. Some of those changes are likely to act in our favour. The time cannot be far distant when the United States of America, instead of being held up to us for an example, will be looked to as a warning. Portugal and Spain will show the egregious incapacity and misconduct of the present administration. And Louis Philippe, becoming a conservative for his own sake, must also seek peace and ensue it; ‘because the liberal principles to which France would appeal in case of a continental war would overthrow his throne. It cannot be his policy to excite revolutionary movements in other countries, while all his efforts are required for repressing them at home. Our revolutionary ministers, therefore, will not find so ready an ally in him, as he might find in them, if it were his object to bring on a general war. And if we get on without any financial embarrassments (which we may do, as long as peace is maintained), there will be no violent revolution here. We may have an easy descent; and when the State machine has got to the bottom, and is there fast in the quagmire, the very people who have made the inclined plane for it, and huzzaed as it went down with accelerated speed,—when they see what the end of that way is, will yoke themselves to it to drag it up again, if they can, with labour and with pain.

“I am constitutionally cheerful, and, therefore, hopeful. God has blest me with good health and buoyant spirits; and my boyish hilarity has not forsaken me, though I am now in my sixtieth year.

“Of late I have been employed, profitably for
224 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE Ætat. 58.
myself, and, therefore, necessarily, in Messrs. Longman’s great Cabinet manufactory. I am now preparing a friendly lecture to the Corn Law Rhymer in the Quarterly. I taught him, as he says, the art of poetry, and I shall now endeavour to teach him something better, and bring him to a sense of his evil ways. I shall endeavour also to prepare for the same number, as a sort of companion or counterpart to the lives of Oberlin and Neff, a life of the Methodist blacksmith, Samuel Hick, who was born without the sense of shame, and, nevertheless, was useful in his generation.

“But I am preparing for an undertaking of some importance—the Lives of the English Divines, upon a scale like that of Johnson’s Lives of the Poets—to accompany a selection from their works, in monthly parts. An introductory part, or volume, will bring down the history of religious instruction to the reign of Elizabeth. If this plan be executed as it is designed, it cannot but be of great use. It has been long in my thoughts; but I have so much to do that it cannot possibly be started till the commencement of the year after next; and I do not look to so distant a date without a full sense of the instability of human life. Meantime, however, I work on, and lay new foundations, and form new schemes; and am not only eating and drinking and buying books (the only ‘buying and selling’ with which I have any concern), but, moreover, giving in marriage. . . . .

“And now that I have told you all that most
Ætat. 58. OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. 225
concerns myself, dear Sir, farewell! Remember me to your brother and sister; and believe me always,

Yours with sincere respect and regard,

Robert Southey.”

“Keswick, Jan. 10. 1834.

“My dear Grosvenor,

“. . . . . The books arrived a few days since; this I believe you have already been told. But I have not told you how much amusement Cuthbert afforded us on this occasion. The whole business of transcribing, receiving, correcting, and returning proof sheets (to say nothing of the original composition), has been so well concealed from him, that whenever he knows the truth it will be difficult for him to conceive how he can possibly have been kept in ignorance. From this ignorance we anticipated much entertainment, and have not been disappointed, When I went down to dinner he told me with great glee, that the book which had come that morning was one of the queerest he had ever seen. He had only looked into it, but he had seen that there was one chapter without a beginning, and another about Aballiboozonorribang (for so he had got the word), which whether it was something to eat, or whether it was the thing in the title-page he could not tell; for in one place it was called the sign of the book, and in another you were told to eat beans if you liked, but to abstain from Aballiboozo.

“At tea he was full of the chapter about the warts and the moonshine, and all the philosophers in the dictionary. At supper he was open-mouthed about the sirloin of a king, and the schoolmaster’s rump; he would read to me about the lost tribes of Israel;
Ætat. 58. OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. 229
and concluded by wishing he had not seen the book for he should be troubled by dreaming about it all night.

“To-day he says that there is more sense in the second volume, but he does not like it so well as the first. That there is not much in the book about the Doctor; and, indeed, he does not know what it is about, except that it is about everything else; that it was very proper to put &c. in the title-page; that the author, whoever he is, must be a clever man, and he should not wonder if it proved to be Charles Lamb. You may imagine how heartily we have enjoyed all this.

“A letter from Wordsworth tells us that the book has just arrived there, and that one of W.’s nephews (a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a very clever and promising person,) had got hold of it, was laughing while he looked over the contents, and had just declared that the man who wrote the book must be mad.

“God bless you, my dear Grosvenor!

R. S.”

To Henry Taylor, Esq.

“Keswick, May 12. 1834.

“My dear Lord Mahon,

“Thank you for Sir Robert Peel’s speech. I do not wonder at the effect which it produced. But could it be believed of any ministers, except the present, that in the course of a week after the close of the debate in which that speech was delivered, they should have returned to their old base policy of complimenting and truckling to O’Connell?

“In reading that entertaining paper upon the
Ætat. 58. OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. 233
modern French drama in the last Quarterly Review, I fancied that we were obliged to you for it. It is indeed, curiously characteristic of the people and the times.

“You will, I think, be pleased with the forthcoming play upon the history of Philip van Artevelde. The subject was of my suggesting, as eminently dramatic, and the first part (which is all that I have seen), is written with true dramatic power. But so was the author’s former tragedy, Isaac Comnenus, which met with few readers, and was hardly heard of. To obtain immediate popularity an author must address himself to the majority of the public—and the vulgar will always be the majority,—and upon them the finer delineations of character and of human feeling are lost.

“If you have not seen Zophiel* it is well worth your reading, as by far the most original poem that this generation has produced. If —— or —— had treated the same subject, they would have made it most mischievously popular; but exceptionable as it is, the story is told with an imaginative power to which the one has no pretensions, and with a depth of feeling of which both were by nature incapable. The poem has attracted no notice; the chief cause of the present failure I suppose to be that it is not always perspicuously told. The diction is surprisingly good; indeed, America has never before produced any poem to be compared with it.

“The authoress (Mrs. Brooks) is a New Englander,
“Zophiel, or the Bride of Seven, by Maria del Occidente.

234 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE Ætat. 58.
of Welsh parentage. Many years ago she introduced herself to me by letter. When she came to this place, and sent up a note to say she had taken lodgings here, I never was more surprised, and went to call upon her with no favourable expectations. She proved, however, a most interesting person, of the mildest and gentlest manners, and my family were exceedingly taken with her. Coming fresh from Paris she was full of enthusiasm for the Poles, for whom the profits of this poem were intended if there should be any: and she had a burning thirst for fame, which seems now to have become the absorbing passion of her most ardent mind. I endeavoured to prepare her for disappointment by moderating her confident hopes. She left her manuscript in my hands at her departure. When I had failed to obtain a publisher for it, some of her American connections engaged with a bookseller in Great Queen Street; and I corrected the proof sheets.

“Believe me, my dear Lord,

Yours with sincere regard,

Robert Southey.”

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Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, tenth baronet (1787-1871) Tory politician and philanthropist, educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford; he was MP for Devon (1812-18, 1820-31) and North Devon (1837-57). He was a founder of Grillion's Club and active in religious causes.

Sir Robert Adair (1763-1855) English diplomat; he was Whig MP for Appleby (1799-1802) and Camelford (1802-12), a friend and disciple of Charles James Fox, and ambassador to Constantinople, 1809-10. He was ridiculed by Canning and Ellis in The Rovers.

Sir Archibald Alison, first baronet (1792-1867) The son of the aesthetician of the same name; educated at Edinburgh University, he was a historian, Tory writer for Blackwood's, and sheriff of Lanarkshire.

Philip van Artevelde (1340 c.-1382) The godson of English queen Philippa of Hainault who led a burgher's rebellion against Count Louis II of Flanders; he is the subject of the tragedy by Henry Taylor (1834).

Matthias Attwood (1779-1851) Birmingham banker and economist; he was a Tory MP for Fowey (1819), Callington (1820-30), Boroughbridge (1830-32), and Whitehaven (1832-47).

Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac (1755-1841) French journalist, revolutionary politician, and regicide who was one of the first to turn on Robespierre.

Sir George Howland Beaumont, seventh baronet (1753-1827) Art collector, painter, and one of the founders of the National Gallery; he was an acquaintance of Johnson and Reynolds, Scott, Wordsworth, and Byron.

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.

Andrew Bell (1753-1832) Scottish Episcopalian educated at St. Andrews University; he was the founder of the “Madras” system of education by mutual instruction; Robert Southey was his biographer.

Armand Louis de Gontaut duc de Biron (1747-1793) He commanded troops in the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, in which he was accused of treason and beheaded.

William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850) English poet and critic; author of Fourteen Sonnets, elegiac and descriptive, written during a Tour (1789), editor of the Works of Alexander Pope, 10 vols (1806), and writer of pamphlets contributing to the subsequent Pope controversy.

Jeremiah Brandreth (1786 c.-1817) Of obscure origins, he was a proletarian radical betrayed by “Oliver the Spy” and executed for leading an attack on Nottingham.

Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville (1754-1793) French writer and Girondist politician executed during the French Revolution.

Maria Brooks [née Gowen] [Maria del Occidente] (1794 c.-1845) American poet born in Medford, Massachusetts; she corresponded with Robert Southey and visited him in 1831.

Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868) Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the Edinburgh Review in which he chastised Byron's Hours of Idleness; he defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University (1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).

John Bunyan (1628-1688) Dissenting preacher and autobiographer; he published Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) and Pilgrim's Progress (1678).

Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury (1643-1715) Educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he was professor of divinity at Glasgow (1669); a supporter of William III, he was made bishop of Salisbury (1689). His History of his own Times was posthumously published (1723-34)

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The author of Childe Harold and Don Juan.

Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681) Spanish playwright who composed some 120 plays, among them La vida es sueño.

Henri comte de Chambord (1820-1883) Son of Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry (1778-1820) and pretender to the French throne.

Joseph Charnock (1802 c.-1867) Educated at Worcester College, Oxford, he was rector of Sawley, and of Winksley, near Ripon (1836-56).

King Charles I of England (1600-1649) The son of James VI and I; as king of England (1625-1649) he contended with Parliament; he was revered as a martyr after his execution.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and philosopher who projected Lyrical Ballads (1798) with William Wordsworth; author of Biographia Literaria (1817), On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other works.

Mary Maria Colling (1804-1853) Born in Tavistock, Devon, she was a domestic servant and poet patronised by Anna Eliza Bray and Robert Southey.

Anthony Ashley- Cooper, seventh earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885) The son of the sixth earl (d. 1851); he was asocial reformer who introduced legislation to relieve women and children laboring in coal mines and to limit the work-day for factory laborers to ten hours.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1781-1855) Polish astronomer who formulated the heliocentric theory of the solar system.

Allan Cunningham [Hidallan] (1784-1842) Scottish poet and man of letters who contributed to both Blackwood's and the London Magazine; he was author of Lives of the most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1829-33).

Jean Cunningham [née Walker] (1791-1864) Originally a farm servant, she married the poet Allan Cunningham in 1811.

Georges-Jacques Danton (1759-1794) French revolutionary leader who was guillotined after his break with Robespierre.

Thomas Davies (1844 fl.) Secretary and amanuensis to the educationist Andrew Bell; he retired to a farm near Keswick. Cuthbert Southey refers to him as the “late” Mr. Davies in Life of Robert Southey (1849-1850).

Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) Queen of England 1558-1603.

Ebenezer Elliott [The Corn Law Rhymer] (1781-1849) English poet and iron merchant who corresponded with Robert Southey and gained national attention with his Corn-Law Rhymes (1831).

Joseph Farington (1747-1821) English painter and Royal Academician; he published Memoirs of the life of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1819); his Diary was not printed until the twentieth century.

James Freeman (1759-1835) Unitarian clergyman educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College; he was a founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

John Anthony Galignani (1796-1873) Bookseller with his brother William; in 1821 they succeeded their father as publishers of the Parisian newspaper Galignani's Messenger..

James Grahame (1765-1811) Scottish poet; author of the oft-reprinted blank-verse poem, The Sabbath (1804). He corresponded with Annabella Milbanke.

George Nugent Grenville, second baron Nugent (1788-1850) Son of George Nugent Grenville, first marquess of Buckingham; he was MP, lord of the Treasury, and author of Portugal, a Poem, in Two Parts (1812) and Some Memorials of John Hampden, his Party and his Times (1831). He was remarkable for his corpulence.

Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845) Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl (d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).

Thomas Hearne (1744-1817) English watercolour painter patronized by Sir George Beaumont; he was a friend of Joseph Farington.

Robert Henley, second baron Henley (1789-1841) Son of the first baron, Morton Eden (1752-1830) and brother-in-law of Robert Peel; he practised law and argued for the redistribution of church property in Plan of Church Reform (1832).

Herod I, king of Judea [Herod the Great] (73 BC c.-4 BC) King of Judea (43 BC) under the Romans.

Herodotus (484 BC c.-425 BC c.) Greek historian, author of Histories of the Persian Wars, called by Cicero “the founder of history.”

Samuel Hick (1758-1829) Yorkshire blacksmith and Methodist preacher.

Bertha Hill [née Southey] (1809-1877) The fourth daughter of Robert Southey; in 1839 she married Herbert Hill Jr.

Edward Hill (1809-1900) The son of Robert Southey's uncle Herbert Hill; he was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and was rector of Sheering, Essex (1849-1900), and honorary canon of St Alban's Cathedral, Hertfordshire (1872).

Margaret Hodson [née Holford] (1778-1852) English poet popular in the interval between Anna Seward and Felicia Hemans; she published Wallace, or, The Fight of Falkirk (1809) and Margaret of Anjou (1816). She married Septimus Hodson in 1826.

Homer (850 BC fl.) Poet of the Iliad and Odyssey.

John Howard (1726 c.-1790) Philanthropist and associate of John Aikin; he published The State of the Prisons in England and Wales (1777).

Maximin Isnard (1755-1825) Originally a perfumist, he was a Girondist politician and president of the French National Convention (1793). He was later ennobled by Napoleon and eventually became a royalist.

John Jebb, bishop of Limerick (1775-1833) Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was an associate of the theological writer Alexander Knox and bishop of Limerick (1822-33).

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English man of letters, among many other works he edited A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and Shakespeare (1765), and wrote Lives of the Poets (1779-81).

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) German mathematician and astronomer who described the laws of planetary motion.

Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834) English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of Essays of Elia published in the London Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) English poet and man of letters, author of the epic Gebir (1798) and Imaginary Conversations (1824-29). He resided in Italy from 1815 to 1835.

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) English portrait painter who succeeded Joshua Reynolds as painter in ordinary to the king (1792); he was president of the Royal Academy (1820).

Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808) Educated at St John's College, Cambridge, he was a Unitarian minister and friend of Joseph Priestly who officiated at the Essex Street Chapel in London.

Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842) A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and Moore.

Louis Philippe, king of the French (1773-1850) The son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans; he was King of France 1830-48; he abdicated following the February Revolution of 1848 and fled to England.

William Lowther, first earl of Lonsdale (1757-1844) Tory peer and patron of William Wordsworth; he was created earl of Lonsdale in 1807.

John Maitland, duke of Lauderdale (1616-1682) Royalist peer and supporter of Charles II who was secretary for Scottish Affairs (16600-80), created a duke in 1672.

John May (1775-1856) Wine merchant and close friend of Robert Southey; after the failure of the family business in Portuguese wines he was a bank manager in the 1820s.

John Miller (1787-1858) Educated at St. Paul's School and Worcester College, Oxford, he was Bampton Lecturer (1817) and rector of Benefield in Northampton (1822-42) and Bockleton, Worcestershire (1842-58).

George Monck, first duke of Albemarle (1608-1670) Soldier and politician who, as lieutenant-general under Cromwell, subdued Scotland in 1651 and afterwards played a prominent part in the Stuart restoration.

James Montgomery (1771-1854) English poet and editor of the Sheffield Iris (1795-1825); author of The Wanderer of Switzerland (1806) and The World before the Flood (1813).

John Murray II (1778-1843) The second John Murray began the Quarterly Review in 1809 and published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) English scientist and president of the Royal Society; author of Philosophae naturalis principia mathematica (1687).

Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) Irish politician, in 1823 he founded the Catholic Association to press for Catholic emancipation.

Mary Page (1837 fl.) The cousin of Grosvenor Bedford and member of his household; Robert Southey knew her from 1791.

William Patrick Palmer (1803-1885) Educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Worcester College, Oxford, he was a protégé of John Jebb and a Tractarian theologian.

Sir Robert Peel, second baronet (1788-1850) Byron's schoolmate at Harrow, afterwards prime minister from 1834-1835 and 1841-1846.

Arthur Philip Perceval (1799-1853) The son of Charles George Perceval, second Baron Arden; educated at Oriel College, Oxford, he was a royal chaplain and prolific writer on religious topics.

Jules Auguste Armand Marie, Prince de Polignac (1780-1847) The son of the first duc de Polignac (d. 1817); he was a French statesman and ultra-royalist politician.

Joseph Geneviève, comte de Puisaye (1755-1827) French aristocrat and counter-revolutionary politician who led two unsuccessful invasions of France in 1795 and attempted to settle a colony of exiles in Canada.

George Augustus Francis Rawdon-Hastings, second marquess of Hastings (1808-1844) The son of the first marquess (d. 1826); in 1831 he married Barbara Yelverton, Baroness Grey of Ruthin. He was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to King William IV (1830-31).

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.

Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) The most dogmatic and aggressive of French revolutionary leaders; he sent Danton to the guillotine.

Madame Roland (1754-1793) An early supporter of the French Revolution, she was guillotined with other leaders of the Girondist faction.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Scottish poet, novelist, antiquary, biographer, editor, and sheriff.

William Smith (1756-1835) Educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, he was a Whig MP for Sudbury (1784-90, 1796-1802), Camelford (1790-96), and Norwich (1802-30), a defender of Joseph Priestley and follower of Charles Fox. His 1817 speech in Parliament denouncing Robert Southey attracted much attention.

Nicholas Soult (1769-1851) Marshal of France and commander in the Peninsular War.

Charles Cuthbert Southey (1819-1888) Son of Robert Southey whose Life and Correspondence (1849-1850) he edited. Educated at Queen's College, Oxford, he was curate of Plumbland in Cumberland, vicar of Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset (1855-79) and Askham, near Penrith (1885).

Edith Southey [née Fricker] (1774-1837) The daughter of Stephen Fricker, she was the first wife of Robert Southey and the mother of his children; they married in secret in 1795.

Henry Herbert Southey (1783-1865) The younger brother of Robert Southey; educated at Edinburgh University, he was physician to George IV, Gresham Professor of Medicine, and friend of Sir Walter Scott.

Isbael Southey (1812-1826) The daughter of Robert and Edith Southey.

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).

Philip Henry Stanhope, fifth earl Stanhope (1805-1875) Historian and man of letters, the son of the fourth earl; he published The History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles, 1713-1783, 7 vols, (1836-53).

Charles Swain (1801-1874) Manchester poet, bookseller, and engraver admired by Robert Southey; he published several long poems, including The Mind (1832) in Spenserian stanzas.

George Taylor (1772-1851) The father of the poet Henry Taylor; he was a country gentleman, classicist, antiquary, and friend of Wordsworth and Southey who contributed to the Quarterly Review.

Sir Henry Taylor (1800-1886) Poet, writer for the Quarterly Review, and autobiographer; he was author of the tragedy Philip van Artevelde (1834).

Jane Taylor [née Mills] (1770-1853) The daughter of Henry Mills of Willington House and stepmother of Sir Henry Taylor; in 1818 she married George Taylor.

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.

George Townsend (1788-1857) He attended Trinity College, Cambridge under the patronage of Richard Cumberland, and published Armageddon a Poem, in Twelve Books (1815) and The Old Testament arranged in Historical and Chronological Order, 2 vols (1821).

Pierre-Victurnien Vergniaud (1753-1793) French attorney and Girondist politician executed during the Terror.

Edith May Warter [née Southey] (1804-1871) The eldest daughter of Robert Southey; in January 1834 she married his friend John Wood Warter.

John Wood Warter (1806-1878) Educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford, he was a clergyman, antiquary, and the friend and editor of Robert Southey, whose daughter Edith he married in 1834.

James Watt the younger (1769-1848) He was the son of the inventor and a partner in the firm of Boulton and Watt; he was a political radical in his youth.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) English dissenting clergyman, hymn-writer, and author of the long-reprinted Logic, or The Right Use of Reason (1724).

Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769-1852) Soldier and statesman; commander in the Peninsular Campaign (1809-1813), he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and was prime minister (1828-1830).

Henry Kirke White (1785-1806) Originally a stocking-weaver; trained for the law at Cambridge where he was a contemporary of Byron; after his early death his poetical Remains were edited by Robert Southey (2 vols, 1807) with a biography that made the poet famous.

James White (1793 c.-1885) The younger brother of Henry Kirke White; educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he was curate of St George's Manchester (1826-42), rector of Stalham, Norfolk (1846-52) and Sloley Norfolk (1852-85).

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.

John William Whiteside (1806 c.-1864) Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was perpetual curate at Keswick (1831-35), rector of Trinity Church, Ripon (1835-48), and vicar of Scarborough (1848-64).

William IV, king of Great Britain (1765-1837) Son of George III, who succeeded his brother as King of England (1830-37).

Helen Maria Williams (1761-1827) English poet, novelist, and miscellaneous writer who resided in France after 1788; she published Letters from France (1790-96).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) With Coleridge, author of Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.

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).

The Athenaeum. London Literary and Critical Journal. (1828-1921). The Athenaeum was founded by James Silk Buckingham; editors included Frederick Denison Maurice (July 1828-May 1829) John Sterling (May 1829-June 1830), Charles Wentworth Dilke (June 1830-1846), and Thomas Kibble Hervey (1846-1853).

New Monthly Magazine. (1814-1884). Founded in reaction to the radically-inclined Monthly Magazine, the New Monthly was managed under the proprietorship of Henry Colburn from 1814 to 1845. It was edited by Thomas Campbell and Cyrus Redding from 1821-1830.

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.

The Times. (1785-). Founded by John Walter, The Times was edited by Thomas Barnes from 1817 to 1841. In the romantic era it published much less literary material than its rival dailies, the Morning Chronicle and the Morning Post.

Sir Archibald Alison, first baronet (1792-1867) History of Europe, from the Commencement of the French Revolution in M. DCC. LXXXIX, to the Restoration of the Bourbons in M. DCCC. XV. 10 vols (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood and Sons, 1833-1842).

William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850) St. John in Patmos: a Poem. (London: J. Murray, 1832).

Maria Brooks [née Gowen] [Maria del Occidente] (1794 c.-1845) Zóphiël, or, the Bride of Seven. (Boston: Carter and Hendee, 1833). A biblical tale; one canto was previously published in 1825.

Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury (1643-1715) Lives, Characters, and an Address to Posterity. (London: Duncan and Cochran, 1833). Edited by Bishop John Jebb.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The Works of Lord Byron: with his Letters and Journals, and his Life. 17 vols (London: Murray, 1832-1833). The life by Thomas Moore.

Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681) “La cisma de Inglaterra” in Octava parte de Comedias. (Madrid: 1684). Printed separately in Madrid in 1785.

Mary Maria Colling (1804-1853) Fables and Other Pieces in Verse. With some Account of the Author in Letters to Robert Southey. (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1831). Edited by Anna Eliza Bray.

John Wilson Croker (1780-1857) “State of the French Drama” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 51 (March 1834): 177-212.

Allan Cunningham [Hidallan] (1784-1842) The Lives of the most eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. 6 vols (London: J. Murray, 1829-1833). Published as part of Murray's Family Library.

Ebenezer Elliott [The Corn Law Rhymer] (1781-1849) Corn Law Rhymes. (London: B. Steill, 1831). There were several editions and additions.

James Grahame (1765-1811) British Georgics. (Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne and Co., 1809). Reprinted 1812.

George Nugent Grenville, second baron Nugent (1788-1850) A Letter to John Murray, Esq., touching an Article in the last Quarterly Review, on a Book called 'Some Memorials of Hampden, his Party, and his Times'. (London: 1832).

George Nugent Grenville, second baron Nugent (1788-1850) Some Memorials of John Hampden, his Party, and his Times. 2 vols (London: J. Murray, 1832).

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) “Lives of the Poets” in The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, biographical and critical. 10 vols (1779-1781). The Lives, originally written as prefaces to a collection of English poets, were also published separately.

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) Count Julian: a Tragedy. (London: John Murray, 1812).

John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, bart.. 7 vols (Edinburgh: R. Cadell, 1837-38).

James Montgomery (1771-1854) The West Indies, and other Poems. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, 1810).

James Montgomery (1771-1854) The World before the Flood, a Poem, in Ten Cantos: with other Occasional Pieces. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1813). A biblical epic by the most admired evangelical poet of the romantic era.

Jules Auguste Armand Marie, Prince de Polignac (1780-1847) Political Reflections on the Present Crisis. Addressed to the Author of an anonymous work entitled, History of the Restoration. (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1832). Translated from the French/

Robert Southey (1774-1843) The Doctor &c.. 7 vols (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1834-1847). A rambling biographical satire that contains the first publication of the story of The Three Bears.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) History of Brazil. 3 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1810-1819).

Robert Southey (1774-1843) History of the Peninsular War. 3 vols (London: Murray, 1823-1832).

Robert Southey (1774-1843) The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey. 6 vols (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1849-1850). Edited by Charles Cuthbert Southey.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) The Life of Nelson. 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1813). Robert Southey's most popular work—with the exception of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) The Life of the Rev. Andrew Bell, comprising the History of the Rise and Progress of the System of Mutual Tuition. 3 vols (London: J. Murray, 1844). The first volume by Robert Southey, the second and third by Cuthbert Southey.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Lives of the British Admirals: with an Introductory View of the Naval History of England. 5 vols (London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longman's, and John Taylor, 1833-1840).

Robert Southey (1774-1843) “Lord Nugent's Memorials of Hampden” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 47 (July 1832): 457-519.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) “Memoir of Felix Neff” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 49 (April 1833): 47-81.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) “Memoirs of Oberlin” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 44 (February 1831): 342-388.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) “On the Corn-Laws” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 51 (March 1834): 228-283. With additions by John Wilson Croker.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) “Poetry by Mary Colling” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 47 (March 1832): 80-103.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) “Prince Polignac—Revolution of the Three Days” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 48 (October 1832): 234-285.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Sir Thomas More, or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. 2 vols (London: J. Murray, 1829).

Sir Henry Taylor (1800-1886) Isaac Comnenus: a Play. (London: J. Murray, 1827).

Sir Henry Taylor (1800-1886) Philip Van Artevelde: a Dramatic Romance in two parts. (London: E. Moxon, 1834). There were several later editions.

George Townsend (1788-1857) A Plan, for abolishing Pluralities and Non-residence, in the Church of England, by increasing the Value of Poor Livings, without Spoliation: in a Letter to Lord Henley, with a Postscript to the Church Reformation Society, and the Draft of an Act of Parliament. (London: C. J. and F. Rivington, 1833).

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Authors: Charles Cuthbert Southey; Robert Southey

Title: The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey (London: 1849-1850).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed October 2011

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License