Saturday. Oct. 3. 1801.
Keswick
My dear Wynn
Yesterday I reached this place by
dinner-hour. from hence, if Rickmans next
should summon me, as doubtless it will, I shall post to
Whitehaven & embark in a Collier. the passage may be
three days, hardly more. to be sick three days in a Colliers
cabin is bad – but I know the value of comparison &
shall console myself by remembering that Jonah [1] spent three days in a worse
place.
The Liverpool complaint is very generally
diffused. here it has been bad – but not fatal. at Bolton
very fatal – at Bristol it is raging. the disorder is a flux
– frequently bloody. We should have been alarmed had we
known that when Elmsley was affected.
Skiddaw has used me ill for preferring Old
Snowdon. the rascal as he saw me spit in my face & made
water upon me.
yrs truly
R Southey.
