1632. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, [ early April-]22 May 1809*

My dear Charles

You would have heard from me a fortnight ago if I had not been disappointed – the young one has proved a girl – & I believe my main reason for being sorry is that I have lost the pleasure of calling a boy by your name. A few days after her delivery Edith became very unwell, with a return of the same dysenteric symptoms which she had had two months before. she is however now well recovered, & has this evening for the first time, drank tea out of her room.

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Seven weeks have past away since the few lines above were written, & in time we have had our share of suffering. Herbert has had the croup & been saved from it, – but last night we lost Emma by a violent bilious attack. – We are as well as can be expected after such a shock, – for nothing could be more unexpected. – I had indeed oftentimes suspected there was something wrong in the childs inside & were we at Bristol, that should have been now ascertained. Enough of this. These losses are but for a time, – this is not the first that we have sustained, & probably will not be the last. Neither I nor my children seem made of very lasting materials, – in fact it is very unlikely that my children should be. It is not altogether a fanciful analogy between a man who cultivates his mental faculties exclusively, & flowers <plants> which are improved by culture in an artificial soil; – they bring forth fine flowers, – but either they do not seed at all, – or the seedlings wither away. I often think of what Dr Jarrold has said of pointers, – the finest of the breed hardly ever grow up.¹ It is a wise order of nature & such I acknowledge it to be, severely as I am likely to suffer by it.

I am daily expecting to hear of Sir Dominies marriage, which was to take place this month. He will do well at Durham, & has every reason hitherto to think himself a fortunate man.

My History is advanced in the press as far as page 336.² You would have heard that Kehama was compleated,³ had it not been for these sad interruptions of sickness, – of which we have had four serious ones since the beginning of the year. As it is I am in the last section but one, – & as soon I can recover heart to set to it again, a very few days will compleat it. Indeed I have expected to have concluded it this week, little thinking how my hand was to be palsied. –

I can hardly tell you how eagerly we expect your coming, – tho at the same time I hardly dare expect any thing, such is my ever-present feeling of the uncertainty of all our hopes & prospects. Yet if it please God that we should meet – & no new calamity intervene xxx we shall have some happy days Charles – There will be two candidates for your back within doors, – the boat is in dock where it used to be, & the cork waistcoat shall be brought out & hung in the sun to sweeten, as soon as we hear you & David are at Liverpool on your way. – I wish we were nearer each other, & half repent that we are not so, yet I have rather sunk here, than cast anchor by choice, for I never had funds that enabled me to look about, & chuse a resting place. Whether I may ever remove is very doubtful. if I do – it will be to Bath in preference to any other place. But I have now broken ground in yonder church yard, – & to a man who has no other freehold – even a family grave is something like a tie.

God bless you Danvers. Do not suppose me more cast down than I really am, I am more sad than sorrowful & more thoughtful than sad.

yours very affectionately Robert Southey

May 22. 1809.Keswick