488. To Thomas Wedgwood Address: Thos Wedgewood Esqre | Cote House | Bristol MS. Wedgwood Museum. Pub. with omis. Tom Wedgwood, 135. Stamped: Bridgewater. Feb. 10th, 1808. Thursday Night. Stowey My dear Wedgewood The Boy, who will take this Letter to Bridgewater time enough for the morning's mail, will carry a letter to Captn J. Wordsworth, & prevent him from thinking further of the Drawings. -- I will likewise, as on my own account, ask, what you desire, of Seeds &c. -- You ibid Poole not reply to your letter. Dear Friend! I could not -- if I had wished it. Only with regard to myself & my accompanying you, let me say thus much. My health is not worse, than it was in the North / indeed, it is much better. I have no fears. But if you feel that my health being what you know it to be, the inconveniences of my being with you will be greater than the advantages, feel no reluctance in telling me so. It is so entirely an affair of Spirits, that the conclusion must be made by you, not in your reason, but purely in your Spirits, & Feelings. Sorry indeed should I be to know, that you had gone abroad with one, to whom you were comparatively indifferent -- Sorry, if there should be no one with you, who could by fellow-feeling & general like mindedness yield you sympathy in your sunshiny moments. Dear Wedgewood! my heart swells within me, as it were ---- I have no other wish to accompany you, than what arises immediately from my personal attachment to you, and a deep sense in my own heart that let us be as dejected as we will, a week together cannot pass in which a mind, like your's, would not feel the want of affection, or be wholly torpid to it's pleasurable influences. ---- I can not bear to think of your going abroad with a mere travelling companion -- with one, at all influenced by Salary or personal conveniences. You will not suspect me of flattering you -- but indeed, dear Wedgewood! you are too good & too valuable a man to deserve to receive tendance from a Hireling, even for a month together, in your present state. ---- If I do not go with you, I shall stay in England only such time, as may be necessary for me to raise the travelling money -& go immediately to the South of France. -- I should probably cross the Pyrenees to Bilboa, [sic] see the Country of Biscay, & cross the North of Spain to Perpignan, & so on to the North of -922- Italy -- & pass my next winter at Nice. I have every reason to believe, that I can live, even as a Traveller, as cheap as I do in England. -- Poole & Ward are Maltsters, & will send Mr Wedgewood 50 bushels of as good malt as can be had any where; but Poole wishes to know whether it is to be for Ale or Beer, that is, high-coloured, or pale-- as in this Neighbourhood Beer is made with pale malt -likewise whether he wishes it ground or unground -- & whether he wishes Hops to be sent with it, & what quantity. -- There is fine Flour to be had here, of which Poole will send any quantity, your Brother wishes. -I will write to Gunville tomorrow. -God bless you! ---- I will repeat no professions even in the subscription of a Letter. -- You know me -- & that it is my serious simple wish, that in every thing respecting me you would think altogether of yourself, & nothing of me -- & be assured, that no Resolve of your's, however suddenly adopted, or however nakedly communicated, will give me any pain -- any at least arising from my own Bearings -- Your's ever, S. T. Coleridge P.S. I have been so overwhelmed that I have said nothing of Poole -- what indeed can or ought I to say? -- You know what his feelings are, even to men whom he loves & esteems far less than you. -- He is deeply affected. ---- Perhaps, Leslie would accompany you.