BIB_ID
415550
Accession number
MA 1852.15
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Birmingham and Liverpool, England, 1812 February 11-13.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 22.6 x 18.4 cm
Notes
This collection, MA 1852, is comprised of 40 autograph letters signed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Mr. and Mrs. John James Morgan, written from November 1807 through October 1826. Coleridge lived with the Morgans from 1810-1816.
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 postmarks to "J. J. Morgan, Esq're / 7. Portland Place / Hammersmith / London / For Miss Brent."
The letter was begun in Birmingham on Tuesday night, February 11th and completed two days later, Thursday Noon,February 13th. The letter is postmarked February 15, 1812.
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 postmarks to "J. J. Morgan, Esq're / 7. Portland Place / Hammersmith / London / For Miss Brent."
The letter was begun in Birmingham on Tuesday night, February 11th and completed two days later, Thursday Noon,February 13th. The letter is postmarked February 15, 1812.
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 very unpleasant coach trip to Liverpool; saying he had breakfasted at Oxford but was afraid to call on his nephews because of the "...ridiculous appearance of the Coach, with 14 distinct gaudy Pictures painted on it - & we were so followed both in & out of the city by a mob of Boys, shouting out - Lazy Liverpool! Lousy Liverpool -! Here comes long, lazy, lousy Liverpool -! And truly the Coach deserves it's honors - Two such wretches were forced in on me all night, half drunk, and their Cloathes crusted over with dirt, the best portion of it from the mud into which they had fallen in a squabble, & the worse part of their own making;" describing an attempted robbery by a fellow passenger who tried to take the money he had hidden in his watch fob and describing the remainder of his journey which was more pleasant on a coach called the Bang-up; saying that unless something happens to delay him at Liverpool he will likely not write again until he reaches Kendal; continuing the letter which he dates "Saracen's Head, Liverpool : Thursday Noon;" describing his fellow passengers in the coach from Birmingham to Liverpool and relating, at length and in detail, two nightmares or "Sleep-adventures" he had on his journey; adding that he is uncertain how long he will stay in Liverpool before continuing to Kendal and Penrith; addressing a 2nd postscript to Charlotte which begins on the right side of page 3 but concludes with a final sentence written at the top of the first page, "I know you are fond of letters in general, from A to Z, Charlotte, with the exception of three; but yet don't throw it into the fire, when you find it from S.T.C."
Catalog link
Department