BIB_ID
415212
Accession number
MA 1849.45
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
London, 1817 August 25.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (2 pages, with address) ; 22.6 x 18.7 cm
Notes
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 fragment of a wafer to "Mrs. Coleridge" with "at the Gillmans - about Derwent's / going to College. 1817. August" written in an unknown hand.
Coleridge dates the letter "Monday 24 (or 5th) August / 1817." August 25th was a Monday in 1817. The place of writing from a note on the address panel. The Gillman's lived at Highgate.
With two notes written at the bottom of the letter and attributed to Mrs. S.T. Coleridge by E.H. Coleridge, in his notes on the folder which encloses this letter. The first note is dated 1842 second note is dated September 1822, however it is written below the note dated 1842 (which was originally dated January 1839, but 1839 has been crossed through and 1842 written above it). The text of both notes is provided below in the Summary of the letter.
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 fragment of a wafer to "Mrs. Coleridge" with "at the Gillmans - about Derwent's / going to College. 1817. August" written in an unknown hand.
Coleridge dates the letter "Monday 24 (or 5th) August / 1817." August 25th was a Monday in 1817. The place of writing from a note on the address panel. The Gillman's lived at Highgate.
With two notes written at the bottom of the letter and attributed to Mrs. S.T. Coleridge by E.H. Coleridge, in his notes on the folder which encloses this letter. The first note is dated 1842 second note is dated September 1822, however it is written below the note dated 1842 (which was originally dated January 1839, but 1839 has been crossed through and 1842 written above it). The text of both notes is provided below in the Summary of the letter.
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
Concerning their finances; saying "I cannot write a letter, till I have finished a week's work - therefore - briefly, within a week from the date of this you may draw for 50£ at six weeks on R. Fennor, Bookseller, Paternoster Row - . For the rest, I can only say that I do not and shall not spend a shilling unnecessarily; & that you or the children will have every shilling beyond my necessities. - Hartley left me on Saturday - he has money enough at present - & I have paid his Bills at Highgate, Boots, Pantaloons, &c together with the money in his pocket somewhat about 18£. - I wish to know about my dear Derwent - and whether you can afford to send him up to me by the first week of November -. My Health makes it almost necessary for me to be at the Sea side for 6 weeks - as the difference of the expence will not be above 20£, & the probable advantages in finishing the Christabel much more. - If you will order him the proper fit out that he may want, I will try to defray great part of it within six months...Would to God! I could but hit on a possibility of seeing my dear Sara - I would work night & day to bring it about - but unfortunately, we have no bed-room & she could not sleep out;" adding two additional notes, attributed to the hand of Mrs. S.T. Coleridge, the first dated Jan'y 1842, though it was originally dated Jan'y 1839 and 1839 has been crossed through and 1842 written above it; saying "Derwent went to Highate on the first week of Nov'r 1817, - and thence to Cambridge - he never has seen his native place since - This is Jan'y: 1842. He talks of going with his wife & little son Derwent (ten years old) [written above this is 'now 14'] sometime this year, if possible - I doubt the practicability of it, for most of our northern friends will be in the South during D's summer vacation. I fear he will never see his poor Godmother, Miss Wordsworth, again. He wants to see his brother : his brother wants(?) to see him sadly;" adding a 2nd note dated Sep'r 1822, "There is now no chance of having Mr. Southey here - for H.N. Coleridge his brother in law & very good friend lies ill confined to his Bed-room where he has been 4 months - he cannot walk at present - & we hear his recovery will be very tardy - he is, alas! not well enough to go to the Sea-side."
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