173 206
“I HAVE NOT YET READ LD BYRON’S BOOK”
264
●
DE QUINCEY, THOMAS. Autograph Letter Signed, to poet Robert Southey,
imploring him to write a letter of introduction for a young scholar friend with tuberculo-
sis, and in a postscript, relating news about Mr. and Mrs. [William] Wordsworth, adding
that he had not yet read Lord Byron’s book and promising to return it. 1
1
/
4
page, 4to, writ-
ten on the recto and verso of a single sheet; moderate bleed-through (but still legible),
paper strip mounted recto along left edge (not affecting text), minor loss to lower right
corner, signature near lower edge, address panel on verso.
Grasmere, 30 December 1812
[1,000/1,500]
“
On behalf of the Rev’d Henry Leeves . . . I venture to make an application . . . . In
November last I saw him . . . having some symptoms upon him of pulmonary consumption.
Within the last few weeks these symptoms have increased so rapidly that it has been recom-
mended to him by the Clifton physicians, as his only chance for life, to sail immediately for
some warm latitude. Accordingly he intends accompanying a friend, who commands a sloop of
war bound to Halifax, as far as the Bermudas—and thence getting a passage to Lisbon, or
Cadiz—and perhaps afterwards proceeding to Sicily and Malta. . . . I would entreat of you to
furnish him with a letter of introduction to any of the places above mentioned. . . . I can say
that he [is] . . . a man of respectable talent—attached to literature—and an excellent classical
scholar. . . .”
The postscript: “. . . I have just returned from Ambleside, where Wordsworth and Mrs.W. still
remain withWilliam—who is convalescent but delicate . . . .They think of returning tomorrow
or the next day to Grasmere. . . .
“
. . . I have not yet read Ld Byron’s book; but I mean to read it in a day or two, and will then
return it with Mr. Koster’s pamphlet.”
De Quincey (1785-1859) was the English author of
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
.