He went soon after to visit his grandmother at Bedminster. This was a wonderful change for the boy. Free to roam at his own sweet will, every hour in the day was a delight to him, and the influence of this emancipation followed him throughout his entire life. On his return home, he was sent as day scholar for a year to a Mr. Foot and then to a boys’ school at Corston, nine miles from home. The teaching was of little value, and the household arrangements were very crude. Each morning the boys washed in a brook which ran through the yard. This brook was like a jolly playfellow, bringing apples from the orchards through which it ran, and affording scope for many a game. Southey gained little learning from the two years spent here, but he had formed a taste for literature when very young. His aunt had taken him to see many of Shakespeare’s plays while he visited her, and her conversation was largely of actors and authors. Little Robert soon learned to look upon the authors with reverence. His earliest efforts at literature were associated with the drama. He began to write little plays. He read Shakespeare again and again, and had read Beaumont and Fletcher before he was eight years of age. Southey was sent to school at Westminster when he was fourteen years old and remained there four years. He was then sent away because of a sarcastic article which he had written on flogging. Through the generosity of an uncle he was enabled to go to Oxford. He already took great delight in verse making and was a strong, noble youth with a vivid imagination. In 1794 Southey made the acquaintance of Coleridge. The two young men dreamed of a world of their own creation. They would go to America and live as brothers. Each would take a wife, and they would live an ideal life, tilling the soil and studying among rural surroundings. They had friends ready to join them, and Southey was especially eager to carry out this scheme for he loved Edith Flicker, who promised to be his wife. But Edith was penniless, and Southey was cast off by his aunt when she learned of the intended marriage. Young Southey had written an epic poem on Joan of Arc and received fifty pounds for it--a most timely assistance. Soon after the publication of “Joan of Arc” Southey’s uncle arrived from Lisbon and persuaded Robert to return with him. On the day he sailed he was secretly married in Redcliffe Church, Bristol. On Southey’s return from Spain he gave up his former plans for founding a brotherhood, but was still busy with schemes for tragedies, comedies, and romances which were to be written.