Written on "Monday."
This collection, MA 1849, is comprised of forty-six autograph letters signed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to his wife, Sara Coleridge, written between 1802 and 1824.
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged individually as MA 1848- MA 1857.
Address panel with postmark to "Mrs. Coleridge / Greta Hall / Keswick / Cumberland."
Relating details of travel to Penrith, the weather and his ill health and an incident involving Mary Lamb; telling her when he hopes to arrive at Penrith and giving instructions for Mr. Jackson; relating details of the weather and its direct effect on his ill health; saying that he will "...dine again with Sotheby. He ha[s] informed me, that ten gentlemen, who have met me at this House, desired him to solicit me to finish the Christabel, & to permit them to publish it for me / & they engaged that it should be in paper, printing, & decorations the most magnificent Thing that had hitherto appeared. - Of course, I declined it. The lovely Lady shan't come to that pass! Many times rather would I have it printed at Soulby's on the true Ballad Paper / - However, it was civil - and Sotheby is very civil to me. I had purposed not to speak of Mary Lamb - but I had better write it than tell it. The Thursday before last she met at Rickman's a Mr. Babb, an old old Friend & Admirer of her Mother / the next day she smiled in an ominous way - on Sunday she told her Brother that she was getting bad, with great agony - on Tuesday morning she layed hold of me with violent agitation, & talked wildly about George Dyer / I told Charles, there was not a moment to lose / and I did not lose a moment - but went for a Hackney Coach, & took her to the private Madhouse at Hogsden / She was quite calm, & said - it was the best to do so - but she wept bitterly two or three times, yet all in a calm way. Charles is cut to the Heart;" asking her to relay the contents of his letter to Grasmere.