526. To Sir George Beaumont

Address: Sir G. Beaumont, Bart. | Dunmow | Essex [Readdressed in another hand] Sir Geo. Beaumont, Bart. | North Aston | Near Woodstock | Oxfordshire.

MS. Cornell University Lib. Pub. Some Letters of the Wordsworth Family, ed. by L. N. Broughton, 1942, p. 101. Postmark: 22 October 1803. Stamped: Penrith.

Keswick, Monday, Oct. 16 [17]. 1803

Dear Sir George

I have had a large Sheet of Verses lying on my Desk for the last ten days, intended for Lady Beaumont: and I have wanted the heart to correct & send them off. They seemed so flat in themselves -- and so unseasonable in the present awful crisis. I have been haunted with anxieties concerning you -- my eyes ever & anon on the Map, now on Essex, & now on the Coast of France. -- Dear Sir George, you are not a military man, nor possessed of military Science -- night after night, I have been framing wishes that you were in Leicestershire, doing there what no one but yourself can do so well, namely, raising and organizing your Tenantry & Colliers -- instead of remaining in the very heart of the Danger & the Anxiety, and where, I presume, all the Good has been done which your Presence was calculated to do. The form of Lady Beaumont & the imagined Form of your venerable Mother, are present to me / and I cannot help wishing & wishing that they were farther inland.

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Do forgive me, dear Sir George! if I have presumed too far, in giving words to my feelings; but I am convinced, that there is no real Danger that threatens G. Britain as an Empire; but that the Plan of the Miscreant is that of a man mad with Hatred of Englishmen as Englishmen, & that he anticipates a relief to this infernal Passion by spreading Bloodshed & pitiless Devastation over particular Tracts -- whatever part he may be able to disgorge his Troops on/ tho' at the certainty of their final Destruction. If contrary to my deepest conviction, I find the Country in real Danger, I will stand or fall with it -- and I trust, that I should not be found in my Study if the French remained even 10 days on British Ground. But merely to place one's self close by the Sluice-gate of the Stream, with no chance of doing any good that ten thousand cannot do better than you, 10,000 men, who can do nothing else, on whom their Country have no other Call, and Posterity no Claims -- but I write in pain -- my nature turns away with Terror from the Idea of appearing obtrusive or presumptuous to you. ------ I received last night two Volumes of Dr Barrow 1 -- the admirable Passage on Wit, in which Lady Beaumont had put a paper, is an old friend & favorite of mine. Beyond any other passage in any Language it carries along a regular Admiration with a still increasing Surprize, till the mind rests at length in pure Wonder. -- I pray, that I may read these excellent Sermons to such an effect, as will be considered by her Ladyship as the best possible Thanks. -We have quite a sick House -- Southey's Eyes are very bad, Mrs Southey & her Sister are very poorly -- Derwent is just recovering of a bad epidemic Cough & Fever, & poor little Sara is at this moment very ill indeed with it -- tho' Mr Edmondson hopes & believes, that there is no danger. Mrs Coleridge is well: & I am better than usual. -- I am very anxious to hear from you, and am with respectful affection your obliged & grateful, S. T. Coleridge.