461. To Basil Montagu Address: Basil Montague Esq. | Christs College | (or at his Lodgings, opposite Jesus College) I Cambridge Single Sheet MS. Huntington Library. Pub. E. L. G. i. 210. Stamped: Keswick. Greta Hall, Keswick Tuesday, Sept. 21. 1802. My dear Montague I received your Letter last night, inclosing two pound -- & another two pound in a Letter from Dorothy -- which is amply sufficient for me. I am at ease. -- I am puzzled how to read the Direction, you have sent -- I suppose, it is Christ College -- and yet I know not how it can be that, as you lodge opposite Jesus -- You would have heard from me some days ago had I known your address -- & by the close of this week you will hear from me to some purpose. Be under no alarm concerning any other Selections -- were there twenty, it would increase not diminish the probable Sale of our's -- it may possibly be prudent to give the work a more extensive name -- ex. gr. 'Examination of the Style of our English Prose Writers under Charles I. & the Commonwealth, chiefly in reference to Jeremy Taylor, & Milton, with illustrative Selections.' 1 -- I do not see that the Book Mackintosh mentions will be of any use to me, sufficient to repay the expence of Carriage. I have Milton's Works, Hall's Works, & all Taylor's, together with Harrington's. We have been plagued to death with a swarm of Visitors -- I thought of having a Board nailed up at my Door with the following Words painted on it -- Visited out, & removed to the Strand, opposite to St Clement's Church, for the Benefit of Retirement. You tell me -- you are very very happy. How can you be otherwise? You have no overburthening cares -- you have an active mind -- a kind & gentle Heart -- and a wife devoted to you, a beautiful Woman, pure & innocent as her own dear Babe -- affectionate, as yourself, & her affections moving in the same Directions. Beside which, she has a Voice & a Harp that would make me as ____________________ 1 In 1805 Montagu published Selections from the Works of Taylor, Hooker, Hall, and Lord Bacon. With an Analysis of the Advancement of Learning. -870- great a Poet as Milton (I sometimes think) if I lived near you. -May the Almighty bless you both, & continue you to be the sources of each other's Goodness as well as Comfort. -- What are your motives for a residence at Cambridge? I went last week to Braighton to Sir Wilfrid Lawson's who unites a kingly House with a most kingly Library. On my return I called at a Friend's or Acquaintance's rather who lay ill in a nervous Fever -- on my Return I experienced an attack of the same -- a sudden loss of Strength & Spirits, with a very quick & very feeble pulse. My pulse was 120 in the course of the night. I had been myself a witness of the vast efficacy of the muriatic Acid in low Fever -- & took a large Dose -- & it assuredly stopped the Progress of the Fever. I am very weak -- & my bowels deranged by the violence of the Acid -- but my Spirits have recovered from the utter Prostration, into which they fell on the commencement of the attack/& my pulse is fuller, & less frequent. Hartley was six years old lately -- & Derwent 2 years last Tuesday -- on which day he could tell all his Letters -- & tell the names of upwards of 60 animals, on the picture Cards. He is as quick a Learner for his age as any child I know of -- & there is not a child of his age in Christendom that I love so well. I am grieved that Dorothy has been stopped in London by a violent Cold. -- My best prayers for your Infant -- & to Laura a Brother's affectionate kind wishes. -- Your's, dear Montague, most sincerely, S. T. Coleridge P.S. I shall write again on Saturday, if I am alive. --