**COLERIDGE, George.** Long and intimate ALS dated Ottery, 20th November and 22nd of November and 6th February. 1816 to John May, beginning "My Dearest Friend", largely concerned with the education and prospects of his nephew, Hartley Coleridge, (Samuel Taylor Coleridge's eldest son), those of his son, and an account of his own education at University. He has received a letter from Hartley Coleridge "and it will give Mr Southey and his friends in the north great pleasure to know that it was an answer worthy of the education, which he and they have bestowed upon him. I trust that he does not inherit his Father's maxim to say and do not: and I will certainly give him credit for sincerity, until I hear that he has wilfully forfeited my good opinion." The letter continues with a discussion of the merits of taking a situation, which the uncle says he could at once procure for his nephew, or continuing at University. George Coleridge had himself been obliged to give up his studies at University before they were completed. He goes on to consider in some detail the relative merits of Christ Church, Oxford and Trinity, Cambridge as a destination for his son. "Now if I have formed any fixed notion of George's intellect it is that he has more solidity than Genius, that he could be confined to matters of fact rather than explore the regions of Fancy and that therefore generally speaking, Cambridge would be his sphere of action..." c. 1500 words on 4p. 4to size. With wax seal. In good condition.

George Coleridge, elder brother of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He succeeded his father as vicar of the town of Ottery St. Mary and master of the grammar school.