THE PSYCHE UNCHAINED Sut,—The hard core of fact in biographical
research is only found by going to the original source. Mr. Norman Kilgour has clearly only consulted the notes made eighty years ago for Sidney Colvin's biography of Keats, and now at Keats House. The accurate documentary source for Keats's finances, never fully examined before and not even mentioned in recent biographies, is the voluminous Chancery proceedings in the Public Record Office.
The Order in Chancery of May 10, 1815 (PRO, C33, 618. f.809) makes it clear that the payment by Chancery to Keats's guardian, Abbey, has absolutely nothing to do with the £3,217 of 3 per cent stock held by the Accountant General in Chancery in the name of the Keats children during their minorities. This latter fund was not even mentioned in the Chancery hearing of May 10, 1815, the only Chancery proceed- ing with which Abbey had any connection. There is therefore no evidence that Abbey ever knew of it; he was no party to the Order of February 13, 1810, which set up this trust fund before he even became Keats's guardian. The Court of Chancery did not inform the guardians of minors when it held funds for the latter nor advise them when to apply. Hence the notoriously large funds that their owners left un- claimed in Chancery, of which Keats's, unfortunately, was onel
ROBERT airrINGS
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