1415. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 11 January 1808*

My dear Grosvenor

My brother Tom is as uncomfortable without a Steels-list¹ in his pocket, as you & I should be without a handkerchief there if we wanted to blow our noses. Now as it is a two months operation to get one down by any other way, I pray you buy the last, & get Herries² to frank it down, for it will very well go in one of Percevals franks, – & I will reimburse you the shilling when we meet, & add as many thanks as shall make up the interest.

I have seen both the Scotch³ & the more rascally British Review of our Specimens, – both a good deal worse than the book itself, which is a great consolation. For they have really not discovered the <its> defects of the book, & have imputed faults to it which it does not possess. If the first edition can be got off of I will make it a curious & good book.

How soon I may see you Heaven knows – the sooner the better. My Uncle is in town, & applications are made to him from all quarters for the information which Lord G.⁴ rejected last year as relating to the wrong side of S. America – a damning fact, between you & I, against his statesmanship. – I am in hopes that he will draw up an account of the Present State of Brazil (which no other person living can do so well) – while I proceed with the history. This removal of the Braganza family is a great event,⁵ – tho it has been done not merely without that dignity which might have been given it, but even meanly & pitifully. In truth nothing better could be expected from the Prince Regent. Still the event itself is a great one, & if I could transfuse into you all the recollections &c – which it brings with it to me, you would feel an interest in it which, no person xxxx can it is not very easy to describe.

I am hard at work; & shall be able to send my first volume to press⁶ as soon as I return from London. Meantime the thought of the journey plagues me, – the older I grow the more do I dislike going from home – Oh dear oh dear – there is such a comfort in ones old coat, & old shoes, – one’s own chair & one’s own fireside, one’s own writing desk & own library, – with a little girl climbing up my neck & saying do’nt go to London Pappa – you must stay with Edith – & a little boy whom I have taught to speak the language of cats dogs cuckoos & jack-asses &c before he can articulate a word of his own – there is such a comfort in all these things, that transportation to London for four or five weeks seems a heavier punishment than any sins of mine deserve. Nevertheless I shall be heartily glad to see Grosvenor Bedford, – provided Grosvenor Bedford does not look as if his liver were out of order. – How are you? whenever you are silent I am apprehensive –

God bless you RS.

Jany 11. 1808