BIB_ID
403752
Accession number
MA 1581.256
Creator
Wordsworth, Dorothy, 1771-1855.
Display Date
Grasmere, England, 1808 January 3.
Credit line
Purchased from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 32.1 x 20.4 cm
Notes
Dorothy Wordsworth dated the letter "December." The published letter, cited below, corrects the date to January.
This letter was formerly identified as MA 1581 (Wordsworth) 26.
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. See collection-level record for more information (MA 1581.1-297).
Address panel with postmarks to "Lady Beaumont / Dunmow / Essex."
This letter was formerly identified as MA 1581 (Wordsworth) 26.
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. See collection-level record for more information (MA 1581.1-297).
Address panel with postmarks to "Lady Beaumont / Dunmow / Essex."
Provenance
Purchased as a gift of the Fellows from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Summary
Expressing her gratitude for Sir George's gift to her of Walton's book ["The Compleat Angler"] and saying how her brother "...fancies that the imagery and sentiments accord with his own train of thought at present, in connection with his poem, which he is just upon the point of finishing. I think it will be finished in the course of three or four days - he has written above 1200 lines; it is in irregular eight-syllable verse, and will be called a Tale. I certainly misled you when I said that it would be a sort of romance, for it has nothing of that character; yet it is very different from any other poem that my Brother has written;" saying her brother and sister returned home before Christmas; commenting on their small house and remembering "the comforts we enjoyed last year at Coleorton;"saying they are anxiously waiting for a letter from Coleridge with news of Davy and expressing concern for Coleridge's health; worrying that the Edinburgh Review may affect the sale of the Poems; saying how glad they were to receive her account of her mother and thanking her again for Sir George's gift to her of a copy of Walton's book; suggesting, in a postscript, that it might be better not to send the journal "...as our own copy is very incomplete, and it is possible that Coleridge may lose his;" adding that she did not mean to appear to be ignoring part of Lady Beaumont's letter, but ran out of room to discuss the subject of over-indulging children; saying "No person can be more seriously convinced of the bad effects of over-indulgence than I am, and though I am far from thinking that I entirely avoid the fault, yet I hope to do not very grievously err;" adding that she would enjoy reading "Mrs. Carter's Life" and suggesting it "may be sent to Southey to review, and we may see it through him."
Catalog link
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