BIB_ID
107702
Accession number
MA 1581.48
Creator
Davy, Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829.
Display Date
Place not identified, 1808 January 24.
Credit line
Purchased from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 22.8 x 18.6 cm
Notes
The signature has been cut away and the first page has also been cut into, resulting in some loss of text.
Address panel with postmarks: "Sir George Beaumont Bart. / Dunmow / Essex."
The lectures Davy refers to in the letter were delivered at the Royal Institution.
This letter is from a large collection of letters written to Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753-1827) and Lady Margaret Willes Beaumont (1758-1829) of Coleorton Hall and to other members of the Beaumont family.
This item was formerly identified as MA 1581 (Davy) 1.
Address panel with postmarks: "Sir George Beaumont Bart. / Dunmow / Essex."
The lectures Davy refers to in the letter were delivered at the Royal Institution.
This letter is from a large collection of letters written to Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753-1827) and Lady Margaret Willes Beaumont (1758-1829) of Coleorton Hall and to other members of the Beaumont family.
This item was formerly identified as MA 1581 (Davy) 1.
Provenance
Purchased as a gift of the Fellows from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Summary
Saying that he would have responded to Beaumont earlier, but he was hoping to see or hear from Coleridge before writing: "In this I have been unsuccessful. I have written to him begging him to give some account of himself; but He has returned no answer. I am afraid He is very much indisposed. He was unable to give his lecture on Friday & on that day I understand, kept his bed"; telling Beaumont that he sent someone to make inquiries the previous day (Saturday) and, from their account, he suspects that Coleridge's illness is a "bilious affection; which from its nature can scarcely be of long duration. -- I trust in a few days He will be restored to his anxious Friends & the public"; describing the reception of a previous lecture: "The subject was Taste, & I am told by every body that He treated this subject in a most eloquent & masterly manner. He pleased Critics as well as Poets by his general principles, & delighted the uninitiated by his poetical diction & empassioned manner"; saying that he hopes Coleridge will be able to go on lecturing: "It will be an employment of his talents to good purpose & He will put together a mass of valuable compositions which He may hereafter publish"; giving Beaumont an account of his own recent illness and recovery; adding in a note at the top of the first page that he is re-opening the letter to tell Beaumont that he has heard from Coleridge, who is "in tolerable spirits" and says he is "nearly well."
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