View a selection of objects from our Robert Southey Collection.
Robert Southey’s letter box. This box was made to keep Southey’s correspondence safe. You can see it on display on Southey’s desk in Two views of Southey’s ‘Cottonian’ Library at Greta Hall, Hannah Felloby, 1838. It is veneered in a dark wood with lighter edges to give the item a ‘stripey’ look. It was purchased at the sale of Robert Southey’s effects at Greta Hall in 1843, and was later owned by Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, who bequeathed it to Keswick Museum along with other Southey-related items in his collection.Robert Southey’s pale blue notebook. This working notebook, used by Southey c. 1813-14, contains drafts of his writings. These include versions of the earliest poems he produced after being appointed as Poet Laureate in autumn 1813.Portrait of Robert Southey, aged 2. This portrait of Robert Southey as a child was given to Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley by the poet’s granddaughter Bertha Alethea Hill. It was left to the Museum as a part of the Rawnsley bequest. Southey reflected on this likeness in his poem ‘On My Own Miniature Picture, Taken at Two Years of Age’: ‘And I was like this! That glowing cheek / Was mine, those pleasure-sparkling eyes, that brow / Smooth as the level lake, when not a breeze / Dies o’er the sleeping surface!’Robert Southey by John Opie. In 1806 Southey sat for the celebrated portraitist John Opie (1761-1807). The portrait was commissioned by Southey’s friend the translator William Taylor and after the latter’s death passed to Southey’s younger brother Henry Herbert Southey. It came to the Museum via a descendant of the latter and is currently displayed in the Literature zone.Robert Southey’s bookplate. Southey was a great collector of books and had a bookplate especially designed so that he could mark books as his. Designed by the celebrated engraver Thomas Bewick, the bookplate took the form of a block that could be inked and stamped on the pages. The design included a motto’ ‘in Labore Quies’, which translates as ‘rest in labour’. In a letter to his brother Thomas on 15 November 1813, Southey noted that ‘I like Bewick’s block very much indeed’.‘Memoirs of the Cats of Greta Hall’. The Southey family were great ‘philofelists’, lovers of cats. The Museum owns a copy of ‘Memoirs of the Cats of Greta Hall’, an account of the house’s feline occupants written by Robert Southey for his eldest daughter Edith May.Page 1 of Poem from the Cats of Greta Hall to Robert Southey. Southey’s love of cats became well-known in his own lifetime. Whilst he was on a visit to the West Country in 1824 Southey was presented with this anonymous poem purportedly written by two of his cats. Its author was probably John Marriott (1780-1825), a Devonshire-based clergyman and poet.Page 2 of Poem from the Cats of Greta Hall to Robert Southey. Southey’s love of cats became well-known in his own lifetime. Whilst he was on a visit to the West Country in 1824 Southey was presented with this anonymous poem purportedly written by two of his cats. Its author was probably John Marriott (1780-1825), a Devonshire-based clergyman and poet.Page 3 of Poem from the Cats of Greta Hall to Robert Southey. Southey’s love of cats became well-known in his own lifetime. Whilst he was on a visit to the West Country in 1824 Southey was presented with this anonymous poem purportedly written by two of his cats. Its author was probably John Marriott (1780-1825), a Devonshire-based clergyman and poet.Robert Southey’s inkstand. Robert Southey’s inkstand is made of silver. It is in the shape of a chest, inscribed on the top with ‘Robert Southey, Greta Hall’. Inside are three inkpots.‘In the Garden at Greta Hall’ by William Westall, 1832. This is an image of the garden of the Southey family home, Greta Hall, which overlooks the town of Keswick. William Westall visited Southey and Wordsworth in the Lakes in the late 1810s and recorded many different landscapes from the area. Southey described Westall as ‘by far the most faithful delineator of the scenery of the Lakes’. Bertha, Katharine and Isabel Southey by Edward Nash. The artist Edward Nash (1778-1821) was a close friend of the Southey family. During the time he spent with them at Greta Hall he painted this watercolour portrait of the three youngest Southey daughters: Bertha (1809-1877), Katharine (1810-1864) and Isabel (1812-1826).Page 1 of a letter from Herbert Southey to Mary Barker, with postscript by his aunt Sarah Coleridge. This letter was written by Herbert Southey to Mary Barker, a close friend of the family who for a time lived at Greta Lodge, next door to Greta Hall. Although only partially dated, the content dates the letter to 3 November 1815. Herbert died just over five months later on 17 April 1816, aged nine.Page 2 of a letter from Herbert Southey to Mary Barker, with postscript by his aunt Sarah Coleridge. This letter was written by Herbert Southey to Mary Barker, a close friend of the family who for a time lived at Greta Lodge, next door to Greta Hall. Although only partially dated, the content dates the letter to 3 November 1815. Herbert died just over five months later on 17 April 1816, aged nine.‘Greek Grammar in Rhyme’ by Robert Southey. The Southey children and their first cousin, Sara Coleridge, were all home-schooled. This ‘Greek Grammar in Rhyme’ was compiled by Southey for his eldest son Herbert (1806-16).Two views of Southey’s ‘Cottonian’ Library at Greta Hall by Hannah Felloby, 1838. These watercolours show how Southey spent much of his working life – at his desk, surrounded by his library.Two views of Southey’s ‘Cottonian’ Library at Greta Hall by Hannah Felloby, 1838. These watercolours show how Southey spent much of his working life – at his desk, surrounded by his library.‘Cottonian’ books. Southey built up an extensive library of over 14,000 volumes. Book binding was expensive and Southey was not wealthy. To save money, Southey’s female family and friends learned to bind some of the less valuable books in his collection, upcycling materials from old clothing and creating hand-made labels for the spines. The Southey family described the c. 1400 books thus bound as ‘Cottonian’ volumes, a reference to the materials used for binding and a punning allusion to the famous collection of the antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631). Keswick Museum is fortunate enough to own a few ‘Cottonian’ volumes, including those displayed here.‘Cottonian’ books. Southey built up an extensive library of over 14,000 volumes. Book binding was expensive and Southey was not wealthy. To save money, Southey’s female family and friends learned to bind some of the less valuable books in his collection, upcycling materials from old clothing and creating hand-made labels for the spines. The Southey family described the c. 1400 books thus bound as ‘Cottonian’ volumes, a reference to the materials used for binding and a punning allusion to the famous collection of the antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631). Keswick Museum is fortunate enough to own a few ‘Cottonian’ volumes, including those displayed here.Robert Southey’s dress shoes. Robert Southey’s square-toed dress shoes are made of black leather, with six pairs of eyelets on each shoe, leather soles and nailed heels. They would have been worn on formal occasions.Robert Southey’s autobiographical letter to John May (one of a series). Between 1820-26 Southey wrote a series of detailed autobiographical reminiscences. These took the form of letters to his old friend John May. Seventeen of these letters were completed and sent to May. An eighteenth was left incomplete and unsent. Southey hoped that his accounts would provide accurate information about his childhood for a future biographer. He therefore had copies made of the letters and a volume of these is now in the collection at Keswick Museum.A Letter to William Smith MP by Robert Southey, 1817. The MP William Smith had denounced Southey in the House of Commons on 14 March 1817 in the debate on the Seditious Meetings Bill, condemning ‘the settled, determined malignity of a renegado’ and comparing Southey’s arguments against radical views with those he expressed in his early play Wat Tyler, which had been reprinted without Southey’s permission in 1817. ‘My days among the dead are past’ fair copy. The left-hand side of this images contains a copy, in another hand, of one of Southey’s best-known shorter poems: ‘My days among the dead are past’. First published in 1834 it was widely anthologised throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.Letter from Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, July 1839. By summer 1839 Southey was in poor health, suffering from bouts of confusion, memory loss, and tiredness. This letter, sent to his brother Henry Herbert Southey in July of that year shows the impact of his decline on his handwriting and cognitive processes. His illness proved to be degenerative and was soon to deprive him of the ability to write, read and speak. His last surviving letter dates from 6 September 1839 and his final years were recorded by others.Robert Southey’s death mask. Southey’s death mask is a cast taken of the poet’s face shortly after his death on 21 March 1843. He was interred at Crosthwaite churchyard three days later.A lock of William Wordsworth’s hair. Locks of hair were kept and given as mementos of friends and family, but also to represent personal connections to celebrities, in the same way we collect autographs. We cannot be certain of the provenance of this hair, but the note written on the item tells us it is a lock of Wordsworth’s hair. This item in our collection represents the close relationship between Southey and his friend and colleague William Wordsworth.
