510. Robert Southey to John May, 12 April
1800
*
My dear friend
Your letter startled me. I feel for you −
& for your poor brother. these things make us feel the
insecurity of existence.
Our departure is fixed for Monday morning. a
patient [1] of Dr Beddoes is going to Lisbon − &
takes part of our chaise. to accommodate him we go thro
Plymouth, which I was not unwilling to do, as Tom is now in
harbour.
Inclosed is a draft payable to you for fifty
pounds. whatever money you may receive for me shall be paid
to you, without any trouble on your part. I have thought it
prudent to insure my baggage & my Uncles
orders for £100 – as privateers swarm so in on the Spanish coast. Of
ought worse there is little risque – but if we should
founder you will remember that I die worth one hundred
pounds – to be applied for to Messrs
Reid & Smith – Insurance brokers – Bristol. should we be
taken into Corūna I shall have little objection to the
accident, which will only shorten the voyage & give me
an opportunity of seeing Santiago.
<I delayed writing to enclose the
draft.>
God bless you.
yrs affectionately
Robert Southey.
Saturday night.
April. 12. 1800.
Notes
* Watermark: [partial] top edge of
shield
Endorsement: No 53 1800/
Robert Southey/ No place 12 April/ recd: 16 do/ ansd: 27 May
MS: Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center, University of Texas,
Austin
Previously published: Charles Ramos,
The Letters of Robert Southey to John May:
1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 55–56.
BACK
[1] Possibly
a Mr Rundell (first name and dates unknown), who
travelled to Portugal with Southey later in 1800. He may
have been a member of a prominent Bath family of
silversmiths, jewellers and surgeons. BACK
