1

Shelley writes to his London friend Horace Smith on behalf of his father-in-law William Godwin, concerning ‘that most odious of all subjects, money’. Godwin had written to his daughter Mary to say that he was in serious financial difficulty and required £400. Shelley also describes his life in Lerici, and gives an interesting insight into his relationship with Byron: ‘As to me, like Anacreon’s swallow, I have left my Nile, and have taken up my summer quarters here, in a lonely house close by the sea side, surrounded by the soft & sublime scenery of the Gulph of Spezia – I do not write – I have lived too long near Lord Byron & the sun has extinguished the glowworm; for I cannot hope with St. John, that ‘the light came into the world, & the world knew it not.’

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822 (sender)
Smith, Horace, 1779-1849 (recipient)

1822 May 21

4 sheets

manuscript

paper

eng

autographs (manuscripts)
letters (correspondence)

Byron, George Gordon Byron Baron, 1788-1824
Godwin, William, 1756-1836

loans (property)

Lerici (Italy)

1822

Acquired by the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association (KSMA), 23 May 1911.

Purchased by Sir James Knowles from Miss Smith, daughter of the above, and acquired by the KSMA from the executors of Sir James Knowles on 23 May, 1911 by subscriptions given by Miss Marie Corelli, Lord Curzon of Kedlestone, Sir Samuel Boulton, Bt., and and Messrs. Harold Boulton and Arthur Severn.

KSH

Terrace Room

SHL-2.7