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 with seal and postmarks: "For England / Robert Southey Esqre / Greta Hall / Keswick / Cumberland." Under the address Coleridge has written: "Mrs Coleridge will open this, if Mr S. be absent."
Mentioning that General Oakes is setting off for England and he has only enough time to say that "I am and have been most anxious to hear from you and concerning you and your's; that I have received no Letters, some evil chance having intercepted them or sent them to the Fleet off Toulon"; adding that he received a "Box with the German Pocket books" but was very disappointed to find that it contained no letters, "& I kept it unopened almost a whole day, my heart beat so violently with expectation that I feared to see the Letters, of which I doubted not to find many"; saying that he is "free from Disease, but I have reason to know that it is because the diseasing causes are absent, and not that I have as yet gained any strength to bear up against it"; commenting that the heat doesn't bother him; saying that he goes to Sicily next week; writing that he has been staying with Sir Alexander Ball for six weeks, who has been very kind to him, and that he splits his time between two palaces: "if living in lofty & splendid Rooms be a pleasure, I have it"; adding that he hopes to have a chance to write to Sara soon; exclaiming "O my sweet Children! and I know nothing of them."