BIB_ID
417296
Accession number
MA 77.8
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Bridgwater, England, 1797 August 19.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1904.
Description
1 item (2 pages, with address) ; 23.9 x 19.5 cm
Notes
Coleridge gives the date of writing only as "Saturday Evening." Based on his reference in the letter to the assizes, Griggs argues that it was written on August 19, 1797. See the published edition of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
Coleridge lists the place of writing as "Bridgewater." The words "Stowey 1797" have also been added at the start of the letter in red ink in an unknown hand.
Part of the signature is missing.
This collection, MA 77, is comprised of fifteen letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to John Thelwall, one letter from Coleridge to Susannah (called "Stella") Thelwall, two letters from John Thelwall to Susannah Thelwall, one letter from Peter Crompton to John Thelwall, and one incomplete draft of an article on the death of Queen Charlotte. The letters were written from 1796 to 1803, and the draft may have been written in 1818.
Address panel with postmarks: "Mr Thelwall / to be left at the Post Office / Swansea / Glamorganshire / Cross Post."
Coleridge lists the place of writing as "Bridgewater." The words "Stowey 1797" have also been added at the start of the letter in red ink in an unknown hand.
Part of the signature is missing.
This collection, MA 77, is comprised of fifteen letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to John Thelwall, one letter from Coleridge to Susannah (called "Stella") Thelwall, two letters from John Thelwall to Susannah Thelwall, one letter from Peter Crompton to John Thelwall, and one incomplete draft of an article on the death of Queen Charlotte. The letters were written from 1796 to 1803, and the draft may have been written in 1818.
Address panel with postmarks: "Mr Thelwall / to be left at the Post Office / Swansea / Glamorganshire / Cross Post."
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from the London dealer J. Pearson & Co., 1904. Removed from a bound volume in June 1967.
Summary
Beginning "Yesterday morning I miss'd the Coach ; and was ill, and could not walk. This Morning the Coach was completely full : but I was not ill, and so did walk - and here I am, foot-sore, very ; and weary, somewhat;" saying that he has raised a matter with Mr. Howell (Unitarian minister at Bridgwater), but he is powerless; adding that he would have called on John Chubb, but the assizes were underway and "I find, he is surrounded in his own house by a mob of visitors, whom it is scarcely possible for him to leave - long enough at least for the conversation, I want with him;" promising to write to Chubb tomorrow morning and send his answer to Thelwall as soon as possible; telling him to leave instructions with the postmaster in Swansea so that letters will be forwarded; adding "I go for Stowey immediately - which will make my walk 41 miles;" saying that the Howells wish to be remembered to him; writing "I am sad at heart about you on many accounts ; but chiefly anxious for this present business. - The Aristocrats seem determined to persecute, even Wordsworth. - But we will at least not yield without a struggle - and if I cannot get you near me, it shall not be for want of a tryal on my part. - But perhaps, I am passing the worn-out spirits of a fag-walk, for [the r]eal aspect of the business."
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