187. To G. Catcott Address: Mr G. Catcott Sub-Libran. MS. Bristol Central Lib. Pub. Early Ree. i. 211. In printing this letter Cottle changed 'one shilling & three pence' to 'five shillings', in the first sentence; and at the close of the letter he inserted the word 'expensive' before 'notes & letters'. [ Circa 6 May 1797] 1 Mr Catcott I beg your acceptance of the enclosed letters. You must not think lightly of the present; as they cost me, who am a very poor man, one shilling & three pence. -- For the future, all letters to me from the Library must be thus directed -- S. T. Coleridge | Mr Cottle's | Bookseller, | High Street | Bristol. With respect to the Bruckers; altho' by accident they were register'd on the 23rd of March, yet they were not removed from the Library for a fortnight after -- : and when I received your first letter on this subject, 2 I had had the two Volumes just three weeks. Our learned & ingenious Committee may read thro' two quartos -i.e. two thousand and four hundred pages of close printed Greek & Latin in three weeks, for aught I know to the contrary: I pretend to no such intenseness of application or rapidity of Genius. -- I must beg you to inform me by Mr Cottle, [wha]t length of time is allowed by the rules & customs of our institution for each book -whether the contents, as well as the size, are consulted in apportioning the times -- or whether, customarily, any time at all is apportioned, except where the Committee, in individual cases, clause to deem it proper. -- I subscribe to your Library, Mr Catcott! not to read novels, or books of quick reading & easy digestion -but to get books, which I can not get else where -- books of massy knowlege -- & as I have few books of my own, I read with a common place book -- so that if I be not allowed a longer period of time for the perusal of such books, I must contrive to get rid of my ____________________ 1 In the Register of the Bristol Library Society it is noted that Coleridge was charged with the Brucker volumes from 28 Mar. to 11 May 1797. The entries also show that letters from the Library were sent to Coleridge on 26 Apr. and 5 May. See George Whalley, "The Bristol Library Borrowings of Southey and Coleridge, 1798-8", The Library, Trans. Biblio. Soc., Sept. 1949, pp. 114-82. Coleridge's letter was probably written immediately on receipt of the library's second communication. 2 The 'first letter' from the Bristol Library on 26 Apr. 1797 reads: 'Sir, I am directed by the COMMITTEE to remind you that Brucker, Hist. Crit. Phil. Vol. 1st & 2nd was registered in your Name, on the 23 Day of March ulto. G. Catcott Sub-Librarian.' [MS. Harvard.] -323- subscription, which would be a thing perfectly useless, except as far as it gives me an opportunity of reading your little notes & letters -- . Your's in christian fellowship S. T. Coleridge