I arrived at this place, late last night, by the mail from Nottingham,
where I have been treated with kindness and friendship, of which I can
give you but a faint idea. I preached a charity sermon there last sunday;
I preached in colored clothes. With regard to the gown at Birmingham (of
which you inquire) I suffered myself to be over-persuaded:--first of all,
my sermon being of so political a tendency, had I worn my blue coat, it
would have impugned Edwards. They would have said, he had stuck a
political lecturer in his pulpit. Secondly,--the society is of all sorts.
Unitarians, Arians, Trinitarians, &c.! and I must have shocked a
multitude of prejudices. And thirdly,--there is a difference between an
Inn, and a place of residence. In the first, your example, is of little
consequence; in a single instance only, it ceases to operate as example;
and my refusal would have been imputed to affectation, or an
unaccommodating spirit. Assuredly I would not do it in a place where I
intended to preach often. And even in the vestry at Birmingham, when they
at last persuaded me, I told them, I was acting against my better
knowledge, and should possibly feel uneasy after. So these accounts of
the matter you must consider as reasons and palliations, concluding, 'I
plead guilty my Lord!' Indeed I want firmness. I perceive I do. I have
that within me which makes it difficult to say, No! (repeatedly) to a
number of persons who seem uneasy and anxious....

My kind remembrances to Mrs. Wade. God bless her, and you, and (like a
bad shilling slipped in between two guineas.)

Your faithful and affectionate friend,

S. T. Coleridge."