Letter from Ernest Hartley Coleridge, Fieldside, Weybridge, to William Angus Knight, 1887 October 27 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning Coleridge's relationship to his wife as seen through the volume of Dorothy Wordsworth letters published by Knight and discussing issues related to E.H. Coleridge's book on S.T.C.; saying "Dorothy Wordsworth's Letters are of great value and explain S.T.C.'s relations to his wife as they have never been explained before - Your publication of these letters, of which I entirely approve - must convince everybody that it would be quite futile for me to suppress evidence and to hide open secrets - Dr. Stoddart's letter is perhaps when read in that explanation, of a damaging character - No explanation will I fear relieve S.T.C. of the charge of squandering a large sum of money on himself - I will send you the extracts you require - Mr. Sandford has sent me a copy of a Letter of W.W. to Poole - I say I do not think that it ought to be published by any one but myself - I am not sure that I ought to do so - I am inclined to think that I should give the sense without quoting the exact words;" discussing an autograph collection he will be looking at promising to let him know if he sees anything that would be use to him; adding that he was told that a collector "...had the originals of Southey Letters to Cottle written in 1836 and published in the Reminiscences - He tells me that they are shamefully garbled. For instance in one of the distressing letters of Southey to Cottle of 1814 relative to a proposed annuity for S.T.C. - Southey is made to say "I subscribe enough'; asking his opinion of the merits of publishing volumes of S.T.C.'s Lake Tour but saying that the publishers "...seem to think that it would damage the larger book of which they entertain large hopes - I should like to know if the tours have any commercial value apart fr. the larger book - would you mind glancing yr. eye over one or two of the volumes;" adding "I have begun the actual composition of my Life of S.T.C. I think that I shall take to the work but it is hard to know what to leave out - Between the number-of-the-street theory and the artistic-abode theory no doubt there is a mean - But at present I feel like Garrick in the picture between Tragedy & Comedy. I have learned since I saw you that some letters of Charles Lloyd exist & that perhaps I may be able to get hold of them. You spoke of Dorothy's Stowey Journal. I should like to see it - of Sara Hutchinson, it may be said as to Browning - 'Suddenly as rare things will, it vanished.' Mr. Dykes Campbell told me that Mr. Procter knew something of S.T.C.'s attachment to S.H. - I had not mentioned the subject to him but apparently the matter had exercised his curiosity;" thanking him for his kind words in his Preface "...of my book - Your words should be of service."