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. Previously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 54–55.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
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At last I have heard from Lisbon. the letter
by its date, Feby. 22. must have had a
long passage. my
Uncle writes very kindly, & desires us to set
out for Falmouth as soon as possible, if we can, to sail
with Capt YescombeKing
George, which sailed between Falmouth and
Lisbon.xxx that time
be xxxx early than xxx I hope shall anchor in the
Tagus before the first of May. My Uncle
will take a house for us near his own, & live with us.
–
You know not the comfort it is to have this point settled. I am going now with a definite object of pursuit, with the requisite knowledge for that pursuit, & with no feelings to render a foreign residence irksome & perpetually attract my wishes Englandward. I believe the complaints which now persecute & threaten me will yield to the voyage & the climate.
Whether or not I wish that you may remove to
Lisbon I do not know. for immediate selfishness I should
certainly wish you were going th there, for prospective intercourse – that you
may remain settled in England. The plea of indisposition
will secure me from the waste of time in visiting, & the
weariness which I formerly endured at the long late night
parties.
What is the best method of conveying or receiving money? should I take bills on Lisbon? or draw from thence?
I am already near enough my departure to feel uncomfortable, & eager to have the journey & the voyage over. God bless you. I direct to Richmond still.
<I will soon write again.>