Mr. Churchey's pamphlet is thus entitled, "An Apology, by Wm. Churchey,
for his public appearance as a Poet. Printed at Trevecca, Breconshire, by
Hughes and Co., 1805; and sold by the author, at Brecon, price 6d."
The first paragraph in the 'Apology,' begins thus, the italics the
author's own.
"The author has been ostracised from Parnassus by some tribe of the
critics on his former work of _Weight_, if not _Merit_, one set of whom
--the most ancient, the wisest of them all--condemned it in the _lump_. A
whole volume of ten thousand lines, in _one_ paragraph of their _Monthly
Catalogue_, for which they were _paid--nothing!_ without quoting _one_
line! Whereas a _score (!)_ out of some idle _sonnet_, or some
_wire-drawn_ Cibberian ode, shall be _held up_ out of the _mud_ with a
placid grin of applause. The author _has_ forgiven them, and keeps,
therefore, the _name_ of their pamphlet in the back ground, in the
_charitable_ hope of their having fifteen years ago, _repented_ of that
_injustice_' This ponderous work however, to which the author alludes,
was his 'Poems and Imitations of the British Poets, in one _large_ vol.
in 4to, price only £1 1s. on _excellent_ paper and print! The same price
as even 'Jeffrey Gambado's _Gambol of Horsemanship_' went off as current,
at the same time. He _out-jockied_ me; I always was a bad Horseman." &c.,
&c.
As illustrating one of the extreme points of human nature, I may casually
mention that, after Mr. Churchey's death, which soon succeeded the
issuing of his 'Apology,' from understanding that his widow was in
straitened circumstances, and meeting with a gentleman who was going to
Brecon, I requested the favour of him to convey to her a guinea, as a
small present. A week after, I received a letter from the widow, thanking
me for my kind remembrance, but she said that she was not benefited by
it, as Mr. ---- said to her, 'This is a guinea, sent to you from Mr.
Cottle, of Bristol, but as your husband owed me money, I shall carry it
to the credit of his account'; when, buttoning his pocket, he walked
away.' I immediately sent another guinea, and requested her not to name
so disreputable an action, in one, from whom I had hoped better conduct.
This gentleman, till the period of his death, twenty years after, always
shunned me! At the time the abstraction took place, he was a wealthy man,
and kept his carriage; but from that time he declined in prosperity, and
died in indigence.
[65] In a better sent to me by Mr. Foster, dated June 22, 1843, he thus
explains the mysterious circumstances, relating to the publication of
"Wat Tyler."
"My dear sir,
... I wonder if Mr. Southey ever did get at the secret history of that
affair. The story as I heard it was, that Southey visited Winterbottom in
prison, and just as a token of kindness, gave him the M.S. of 'Wat
Tyler.' It was no fault of Winterbottom that it was published. On a visit
to some friends at Worcester, he had the piece with him; meaning I
suppose, to afford them a little amusement, at Southey's expense, he
being held in great reproach, even contempt, as a turn-coat. At the
house where Winterbottom was visiting, two persons, keeping the piece in
their reach at bed-time, sat up all night transcribing it, of course
giving him no hint of the manoeuvre. This information I had from one of
the two operators....
[66] Poor John Morgan was the only child of a retired spirit merchant of
Bristol, who left him a handsome independence. He was a worthy
kind-hearted man, possessed of more than an average of reading and good
sense; generally respected, and of unpresuming manners. He was a great
friend and admirer of Mr. Coleridge; deploring his habits, and labouring
to correct them. Except Mr. Gillman, there was no individual, with whom
Mr. Coleridge lived gratuitously so much, during Mr. M's. residence in
London, extending to a domestication of several years. When Mr. Morgan
removed to Calne, in Wiltshire, for a long time, he gave Mr. C. an
asylum, and till his affairs, through the treachery of others, became
involved, Mr. Coleridge, through him, never wanted a home. That so
worthy, and generous a minded man should have been thus reduced, or
rather ruined in his circumstances, was much deplored by all who knew
him, and marked the instability of human possessions and prospects, often
little expected by industrious parents.
[67] A large collection of animal bones, many of them in fossil state,
consisting of the jaws and other bones, of tigers, hyenas, wolves, foxes,
the horse, the bos, &c., the whole obtained by me, in the year 1822, from
the Oreston caves, near Plymouth. The number of bones amounted to nearly
two thousand. Many of the specimens were lent to Professor Buckland, to
get engraved, for a new geological work of his. The major part of the
collection I presented to the Bristol Philosophical Institution.
[68] The decrease of the remarkable young lady, Sarah Saunders, my niece,
to whom the later Mr. Foster addressed a series of letters, during her
illness. These letters are printed in Mr. F's. "Life and Correspondence."
[69] LIST OF ARTICLES WRITTEN BY ROBERT SOUTHEY IN THE QUARTERLY REVIEW,
TO APRIL, 1825.
No.