BIB_ID
415037
Accession number
MA 1849.14
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Fort William, Scotland, 1803 September 3.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 23.0 x 15.4 cm
Notes
The bottom of each page has been cut off.
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 / S. Britain."
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 / S. Britain."
Provenance
Purchased from Joanna Langlais in 1957 as a gift of the Fellows with the special assistance of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Mr. Homer D. Crotty, Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Mr. Robert H. Taylor and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne. Formerly in the possession of Ernest Hartley Coleridge and Thomas Burdett Money-Coutts, Baron Latymer.
Summary
Describing his walk of 28 miles to Fort William; saying "...and now I had walked 28 miles in the course of the Day, when being thirsty I drank repeatedly in the palm of my hand, & thinking of writing to Sir G. Beaumont I was saying to myself - this using one hand instead of a Cup has one disadvantage that one literally does not know when one has had enough - and we leave off not because the thirst is quench'd but because we are tired of Stooping;" describing the intense pain he felt in his thighs and "bad Toe' and his complete exhaustion upon arriving at the town; saying he met a man at the Inn whom he had seen on the Ferry who complimented him on how briskly he walked; replying "I told him with faltering voice that I should have been in half an hour sooner, but that the last mile & a half I could scarcely drag my Limbs along : & that the Fatigue had come upon me all at once. 'WHOO! WHOO! WHOO! says the old man - you drank water by the road-side then? - I said, yes! - 'And you have Gout in the Stomach - / indeed, but you are in peril.' - By this time they had gotten me a dish of Tea; but before I could touch it, my Bowels were seized violently, & there...[cut away]...Gallon of nasty water - and so went to bed. Had a Bason of hot Tea brought up to me - slept very soon, and more soundly than I have done since I have been in Scotland. I find myself a little stiffish, this morning / 30 miles was perhaps too much for one day - yet I am positive, I should not have felt it, but for that unfortunate Drench of Water!;" saying he could have continued but that his shirt and stockings needed washing; adding that he hoped to buy new shoes in the town but there were none that were ready made; reminding her that he still needs her to send him money; adding that his recent attack "...is now the third seizure / & the first from mere physical causes. The two former were the effect of agitated Feelings. I am sure, that neither Mr. Edmondson nor you have any adequate notion, how seriously ill I am. If the Complaint does not settle - & very soon too - in my extremities, I do not see how it will be possible for me to avoid a paralytic or apoplectic Stroke...;" asking to be remembered to Mr. Jackson and Mrs. Wilson.
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