Coleridge does not give a date of writing. In the Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Griggs argues that this letter was probably written on August 21, 1797, based on the dating of Coleridge's previous letter to Thelwall (cataloged as MA 77.8). See the published edition of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
No place of writing is given, though the letter is postmarked "Bridgewater." Based on the contents and Coleridge's movements during this period, it was most likely written in Nether Stowey.
The words "Stowey 1797" have also been added at the start of the letter in red ink in an unknown hand.
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."
Saying that he has just heard from John Chubb who has agreed to help Thelwall obtain a cottage in the area, "provided it was thought right, that you should settle here ; but this - (i.e. - the whole difficulty -) he left for T[homas] Poole & me to settle;" adding that his hope that Chubb could settle there without the "interference of Poole" has vanished and listing all the problems that might accrue to Poole if he helped Thelwall: "the whole Malignity of the Aristocrats will converge to him [...] his tranquillity will be perpetually interrupted - his business, & his credit, hampered & distressed by vexatious calumnies - the ties of relationship weakened - perhaps broken - & lastly, his poor Mother made miserable;" saying that Poole had already incurred "[v]ery great odium" by bringing Coleridge to the area (though "my peaceable manners & known attachment to Christianity had almost worn it away") and far worse when Wordsworth arrived: "You cannot conceive the tumult, calumnies, & apparatus of threatened persecutions which this event has occasioned round about us. If you too should come, I am afraid, that even riots & dangerous riots would be the consequence;" writing that the presence of all three of them would be considered a "plot & damned conspiracy - a school for the propagation of demagogy & atheism;" adding that he thinks this would also damage the prospects of the Stowey Benefit Club, run by Poole: "the interests, nay, perhaps almost the existence of this club is interwoven with his character - as a peaceable & undesigning Man;" advising Thelwall to move near Bath instead; saying that if this is not possible, he should come to Somerset in a few months, take lodgings in Bridgwater, "familiarize the people to your name & appearance - and when the monstrosity of the thing is gone off, & the people shall have begun to consider you, as a man whose mouth won't eat them - & whose pocket is better adapted for a bundle of sonnets than the transportation or ambush-place of a French army - then you may take a house;" saying that he is unwell and this matter has preyed upon his spirits: "I have suffered for you more than I hope & trust you will suffer yourself -."