2182. Robert Southey to John Murray, 24 November 1812*

Keswick. Nov. 24. 1812.My dear Sir

The Spirit is moving me strongly toward the Book of the Church,1 with which I shall make rapid progress as soon as Nelson2 is thro the press. There is a history of the <English> Catholics by Dodd3 which I wish you could procure for me, as I have reason to think it would afford me some materials. I do not know the exact title of the book, & x but it is a well-known book among the Catholics.

I hope my article upon the poor4 will be in time. It is so far advanced that I shall send off the greater part of it by the end of the week. I went to it with fear & trembling, – but shall not get thro it the worse for this sense of the importance of the subject.

There is copy of Nelson ready, which I can frank up if Mr Abbott should be re-elected Speaker.5 The papers throw some doubt upon this, – if he should not may I inclose it to Mr Croker? The manuscript will be as nearly as possible of the extent I calculated. – Would it not give the book an additional interest to have the words Horatio Nelson under the portrait given in a facsimile of his own writing?6

Believe me my dear Sir yrs very truly Robert Southey.

Send me when you have an opportunity young Mr Downmans poem,7 which his father is very desirous that I should see.

Notes

Address: To/ Mr Murray/ Albermale Street/ London.
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 27 NO 27/ 1812
Watermark: C WILMOTT/ 1807
Endorsement: 1812 Novr 24 Keswick/ Southey R –
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 42550. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished. Back

1.   Southey’s Book of the Church (1824). Back

2.  Life of Nelson (1813). Back

3.   Hugh Tootell [pseud. Charles Dodd] (1671/2–1743), The Church History of England, from 1500 to 1688. Chiefly with Regard to Catholics (1737–1742). Back

4.   The first of a series of Southeyan articles on the poor appeared in the Quarterly Review, 8 (December 1812), 319–356. Back

5.   Abbot was re-elected following the 1812 General Election. Back

6.   This was not done in the first edition of 1813. Back

7.   A son of the first marriage of the painter John Downman (1750–1824; DNB). He had served with Wellington and published his volume of poems anonymously; see Southey to Tom Southey, 24 February 1813, Letter 2224. Back