'At some point after 1828, W[ordsworth] told Alexander Dyce that he read Bowles's Fourteen Sonnets on publication: "When Bowles's Sonnets first appeared, - a thin 4to pamphlet, entitled Fourteen Sonnets, - I bought them in a walk through London with my dear brother, who was afterwards drowned at sea."'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: William Wordsworth Print: Book
Byron's Ravenna Journal (4 January-27 February 1821), 5 February 1821: 'Read some of Bowles's dispute about Pope, with all the replies and rejoinders. Perceive that my name has been lugged into the controversy ...'
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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gordon Lord Byron Print: Serial / periodical
[Marginalia]
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Book
'The reason for my not mentioning the History of Bremhill was this. I had not read at that time more than a very few pages: I knew nothing of Wansdike, nothing of Tanhill, and could not have told in what county, scarcely in what kingdom, were Avebury and Silbury [Crabbe details his activities whilst not reading the book] I am not a reader of topgraphy, though at one time I corresponded with John Nichols. I always had an opinion that it was extremely dull and I even now suspect that yours is not the genuine sort, for I understand you very well and to say nothing of the knowledge acquired, have been amused. The account of parishes and their "fat rectors" is most assuredly correct, lamentably correct [...] Your natural history and more especially your account of Kelloway rock revived in me the desire of seeng that part of the county [but, he says, his health prevents this] I read the more learned portion of the work with all the interest I could acquire and really by the time I had finished the notes on Chap. 2nd I conceived that I understood the matter like a contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine. I mean in its pristine glory. [Crabbe then praises Bowles for inspiring feeling in his readers, which is unusual for those who write on monuments] But seriously, though I like your book the better because it engages me by subjects which I partly understand, yet I dare not affirm that a rigid antiquary would approve any portion of the work, except that which I either do not comprehend or cannot relish....'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Crabbe Print: Book
Robert Southey to Robert Lovell, 5-6 April 1794: 'Have you ever seen Bowles’s poems & more particularly his sonnets? tho he be an Oxford man,[MS torn] name is little known here; & tho [MS torn] first poet the University can now boast. Allen has lent a [MS torn] copy of his sonnets, for he printed but few copies & they are a[MS torn] to be obtained. they pleasd me so much that I shall trans[|MS torn] your opinion.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 16 January 1797: 'I begin to think that our opinions upon poetry are not consonant. I am no friend to the harmony with which we have been cloyed since the days of Pope. Churchill is too rough: but there is a medium, & I am on the side of Bowles versus Reviewers: who by the by are in general a set of stupid fellows.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
