Coleridge gives the place of writing as "Nether Stowey, Bridgewater."
This collection, MA 1848, is comprised of 92 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Robert Southey, written between 1794 and 1819. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1848.1-92).
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 as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel: "Mr Southey."
Saying that he had breakfast on Christmas Day with Humphry Davy and intended to dine with Southey, but "I returned very unwell, & in very truth in so utter a dejection of spirits, as both made it improper for me to go any whither, & a most unfit man to be with you"; writing that he left London on Saturday and was caught in a terrible storm while riding outside of the coach; saying that he did however have a "huge, most huge, Roquelaire, which had cost the Government 7 Guineas -- & was provided for the Emigrants in the Quiberon Expedition, one of whom falling sick stayed behind & parted with his Cloak to Mr Howel who lent it me --. I dipped my head down, shoved it up, & it proved a compleat Tent to me"; saying that he then stopped in Bath for a day and arrived in Stowey on Monday afternoon: "I am a good deal better; but my Bowels are by no means derevolutionized"; writing that he does not know what to say to Southey about his mother, who is on her deathbed; meditating on death in general; saying that he often feels his own life to be a burden to him and he "would gladly lie down by the side of the road, & become the Country for a mighty nation of Maggots"; writing "I feel for you but not for the event; or for the event only by an act of Thought, & not by any immediate shock from the like Feeling within myself"; adding that he does not know his plans for the future, particularly whether he will go to Devon: "My Relations wish to see me, & I wish to avoid the uneasy feelings I shall have, if I remain so near them without gratifying the wish / no very brotherly mood of mind, I must confess -- but it is, 9/10ths of it at least, a work of their own Doing"; relaying Thomas Poole's greetings and asking to be remembered to Edith and Mary Lovell.