518. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, 2 May 1800 ⁠* 

Friday. May 2. 1800. Lisbon.

My dear Danvers

Here then we are. our safe & speedy passage & the alarms which we endured on the way I have detailed to my Mother who will show you the letter & spare me the needless tedium of telling the same tale again. – I have seen D^r Pitcairn [1]  this morning. he is a very pleasant intelligent man. I told him my case – he agreed in opinion with me & with others – thought me perfectly right in leaving England, as a total change of scene & associations was the only cure, & did not doubt that this country would quite restore me, provided I would allow it time & be in no hurry to return. this will suit my inclination as well as health. I am to drink wine, exercise myself much, take laudanum by <my> own discretion, & pass the summer at Cintra. Pitcairn conversed with me a long time, & I found him a clever, liberal man. he regretted his speedy departure as it would have given him much pleasure to have cultivated my acquaintance. I was instructed not to offer him a fee.

My Mother will tell you how we are settled. our woman servant comes this evening. I have not yet seen her. – she has been here, Maria Rosa, so fine! green satin sleeves – pink satin <jacket> body – powder – muslin petticoat – withall a good looking girl who has lived five years in one place. she is to do every thing except cooking – & that when Manuel [2]  is out of the way. her wages four moidores a year. the moidore is 27 shillings – or nearer 30 according to the present rate of exchange. she is above the common run of servants – to use her own phrase, she is not “one of those people who sleep upon a straw mattress” – & so she has a flock one. thus then our domestic arrangements are made.

I have drawn the plan of our apartments in my Mothers letters. we live in three little rooms, communicating with each other by double doors till this morning when I carried away the gates of Gaza. [3]  We inherit on Monday much of D^r Pitcairns furniture & conveniences – who goes in the next packet. this windfall, with the help of the carpenter who is to make me some swinging bookshelves, will tolerably set us up.

A mail coach has been lately established to Coimbra – 130 miles on the Porto road, to which place it is to run when the road is compleated. yes, a Mail Coach that goes eight miles an hour, – drawn by mules. my Uncle has been in it – it is a royal business & will fail from ill management. it is priced too high – as the fare &c for a single person amounting to as much as his expences in a chaise by himself. now this excludes the main body of travellers – the inferiour tradesman, those who now travel on mules or horses. – Paper money also is introduced here – a bad & clumsy business which I do not understand enough as yet to explain. all I know is this – that the government set the example of discounting it – & that about a fortnight since they paid their sailors in it at par. these men on exchanging the paper found themselves twenty per cent losers, & in consequence a slight riot ensued & they cried out Liberty & Bonaparte! this was soon quelled & the ringleaders secured. they have not however been punished. This paper currency has brought forth its usual child – forgery. a German of some respectability & talents, has been or will be executed for it, in England. [4] 

Danvers my meat, my wax candles – my fuel, my bread come from the public purse of England. my Uncles ratio is very large, & I am very conscientiously taking my share of the loaves & fishes, – eating out my last income tax, & a little of my friends. – the country here is delightful – such a sky! every thing in full leaf! – but the green peas are nearly over. – Our visitors are many of them pleasant – the women I mean – their manners are easy & of that frankness that invites familiarity even from a reserved stranger. Edith mends in spirits already.

I paid my visits this morning to the Envoy [5]  & the Consul [6]  whom I saw. to the Commissary [7]  who came to me last night, & who got my things on shore, & whose wife is a very nice woman – to the Commander in Chief [8]  – & Lord Somerville [9]  who claims relationship with me here, where he finds I am known. I have yet to call on the new American minister. [10]  We shall avoid all parties, & only visit a few families in a family way. Ten days will finish these ceremonials of seeing xxx receiving & returning visits – then I am at pleisure – & at work. I rise at five. this time has been employed in letter writing – a business laborious from the multitude which I cannot but write at first. Sunday the packet sails & I shall breathe a little. I will write by the next to Davy – tell him so & remember me to him – tell him I remember him with the earnestness which he a man feels in a foreign country when he thinks of a friend at home. if he would but knock space as well as matter out of the Universe, we might meet now.

In the midst of my sickness I thought of Thalaba & quo[MS torn] plan. it will now soon be finished. [11]  my time [MS torn] be regularly allotted out, & you will I trust see me return richly laden. the prospect of a Cintra summer delig[MS torn] a scene – such a home! its quiet – its leisure – huzza for Madoc! the gap will soon be filled up there. But the history [12]  is the great work – the mighty Pyramid labour – & I must to hew stones for the buildings.

I was wrong about the Cheese. my Uncle wants some – the mild toasting sort. my Mother will buy them, & Cottle repay her. pray tell her this, & let them be sent according to the direction which you have. Captain Yescombe [13]  was uncommonly attentive. he omitted no kindness which it lay in his power to show us, both at Falmouth & on the way. parcels consigned to him for my Uncle will be taken care, & safely stowed & carefully.

Of the fleas & muskitoes I say nothing – only Edith was rather surprized to see me fill the slop bason with the former at first. remember me to Cottle, & to Charles Fox. [14]  Edith is writing home. I also have written to Coleridge & directed to Bristol. the dizziness of the voyage has almost left me – I am growing sober & the world does not dance before my eyes so giddily. the change of scene has wonderfully improved me. my hair is in full curl & my spirits up to the top of the glass. our love to your Mother. if I could but remove your house xx & a very few persons – like the Chapel of Loretto I should have no wandering wishes Englandward. [15] 

God bless you.

yrs affectionately

Robert Southey.

I met a Bristol man to day whom I knew in infancy. Stephens of Wine Street [16]  – my fathers opposite neighbour. I was quite glad to see his ugly face.