964. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 13 July [1804]*
Dear Wynn
The inclosed is from young White.1 – Send it back when you have done with it. – By the bargain made with him, & the mans thro whose hands the money is to pass2 it is evident that the ‘Evangelicals’ have caught him, & mean to make him a Methodist member of the Church of England. Was ever so What else Mark the bull of his patronage! – they patronize him because he has discovered powers for poetry, & tie him down by a promise never to exercise those powers.
I verily believe there would be no difficulty in raising him a larger sum unconditionally. this you may be sure comes from the funds in Thorntons3 hands. – Show Ld Carysfort4 the letter as he has thought so kindly of the poor fellow – & if you should xxx think we can do him good in a better way I will endeavour to interest the feelings of all to whom I can apply.
The contents of your last letter make me anxiously expect your next.
God bless you RS
Friday July 13.
Notes
Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr M. P./ Lincolns Inn/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/
298
Postmark: [partial] JUL/ 1804
MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. Back
1. White had written to Southey on 9 July 1804 seeking advice about publishing his verse. His letter is reprinted in The Remains of Henry Kirke White of Nottingham, ed. Robert Southey, 2 vols (London, 1808), I, pp. 125–128. Back
2. Southey refers to Charles Simeon (1759–1836; DNB): English Evangelical. Back
3. John Thornton (1720–1790), a rich merchant and Anglican who supported evangelical causes. He sponsored John Newton (1725–1807) as well as Kirke White. Back
4. John Joshua Proby, 1st Earl of Carysfort (1751–1828; DNB), judge, diplomat, Whig politician and poet; the author of Dramatic and Narrative Poems (1810). Back