Coleridge does not list a date of writing. It has been taken from the postmark.
No place of writing is given, but, based on Coleridge's movements at this time and the contents of the letter, it was most likely written in London. See the published edition of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
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 postmarks: "J. Rickman, Esqre. / New Palace Yard / Westminster / For Mr Southey."
Explaining that he finds it hard to speak of himself and therefore had not told Southey, when he had come to visit him that morning, how ashamed he felt about having spoken disrespectfully of clergymen during a dinner party at Longman's, not knowing that Herbert Hill was a clergyman and Southey's uncle to boot; saying that though he then "added many things to express my sense of the wide & silently going on, good, which the Clergy effected, in towns & Villages, as a germ or nidus of civilization, yet you well know, that the best plaister cannot prevent the smallest Wound from being a Wound"; saying that he fears he has made a bad impression on Reverend Hill; asking if Southey has seen Thomas Hill (drysalter, book-collector and part-proprietor of The Monthly Mirror) lately and mentioning that he and Wordsworth would like to know more about him and his connection with the Mirror "in order to understand, with what motives & by what sort of People, these works are carried on--"; reminding Southey to tell John Rickman that he accepts his invitation; mentioning how anxious he is about news from Grasmere that Sara Hutchinson has burst a blood vessel "under circumstances symptomatic of pulmonary affection."