600. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 19 August–6 September 1801 ⁠* 

Dear Grosvenor

& not to understand it as if I called you M^r Carey, which would be calling you out of your name. Wednesday 19 Aug. 1801.

Imprimis – I am going to send you the first book of the Curse poem [2]  – which will this day or tomorrow be finished – but as I shall see Wynn in the course of ten days it shall be delayed to have the name potential on its cover.

2^dly De Anthologiâ – which is of or concerning the Anthology. [3]  as I hope to be picking up lava from Etna [4]  – I cannot be tying up nosegays here in England. but blind Tobin whom you know – God bless him for a very good fellow – (tho (in a parenthesis mark you!) he is deadlily tiresome) – but Tobin the blind is very unwilling that no more Anthologies should appear – wherefore there will be more volumes with which all I shall have to do will be to see that large paper copies be printed to continue sets – becoming myself only a gentleman contributor – to which ingenious publication I beg your countenance Sir! & support.

& 3^dly did not you write a ballad of the Lady her Dog & her Dolly [5]  that were all buried under the Holly? – for I never saw it. but Wynn thought it was mine, which made me think it was Coleridges, whose it was not – & so for the word disagreeabell which it contained it rests upon your shoulders.

You ask me questions about my foreign plans which I cannot readily answer. only that if I get a decent salary abroad, even should my health take a fancy to this queer climate, I have no estate to retire to at home – & so shall have a good prudential reason for remaining there. my dreams incline to Lisbon as a resting place – I am really attached to the country – & odd as it may seem, to the people. in Lisbon they are like all metropolitanians – rogueish enough – but in the country I have found them hospitable even to kindness, when I was a stranger & in want. the Consulship at Lisbon would of all possible situations best delight me – better than a grand Consulship. tis a good thousand a year – but when one is dreaming you know Grosvenor –

These Lakes are like Rivers – but oh for the Mondego & the Tagus. & these mountains – beautifully indeed are they shaped & grouped – but oh for the great Monchique – & for Cintra my Paradise – this Heaven on Earth of my hopes. & if ever I should have a house at Cintra – as in honest sincerity I do hope I shall – will not you give me one twelvemonth, & eat grapes & ride donkeys & be very happy? – in truth Grosvenor I have lived abroad too long to be contented in England – I miss southern luxuries – the fruits – the wines – I miss the sun in heaven – having been upon a short allowance of sunbeams these last ten days. & if the nervous fluid be the galvanic fluid, & the galvanic fluid the electric fluid, & the electric fluid condensed light [6]  – Zounds what an effect must these damned dark rainy clouds have upon a poor nervous fellow whose brain has been in a state of high illumination for the last fifteen months!

God bless you. I am going in a few days to meet Wynn at Liverpool – & then to see the Welsh Lions. so if you know his direction write to me under cover for the love of the frank. & fail not to send the annotations in Thalabam.

Whenever I get my books together I will draw out the long delayed account of Leandrian [7]  poems – which has really only been delayed because the materials have never before me at once.

Grosvenor Bedford I wish you would write a history – for take my word for it no employment else is one thousandth part so interesting. I wish you would try it. we want a Venetian history – I would hunt Italy for your materials – & help you in any imaginable way – think about it & tell me your thoughts.

yrs affectionately

R Southey

Keswick Sep^t. 6. 1801.