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British Library, Add MS 30928. Previously published: Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 108–111.
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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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.
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I write – because ThalabaKing George, which sailed
between Falmouth and Lisbon.
I expected – no that is not true – for I
never expect where Cottle is
concerned – but I hoped to receive Alfredxxx
& if his Enemies are as blunt – luckily the loss, if
loss there be will fall upon the London Cormorants – I have
no bowels of compassion for them.
Even this mummery – this puppet-show popery –
is better than that execrable diabolism of Calvin.x on purpose – is a fine shove towards Paradise. it is a
superstition of hope.
A Preacher here at Cintra asserted the
other day in the pulpit, that there were to
his knowledge, seven Witches in this town. Nobody
doubts the truth of this assertion – to be sure they have
confessed it to him! for you know the secrets of confession
are sacred. Benito our man here, told me this – Sir said
hex if it was not for
the Inquisition, this country & Spain too would be
over-run with Witches & Jews! – The great mischief
ascribed to Witches here, is the trick they have of killing
infants. this happens very often, & always by night, the children are known to have
thus died by the blackness of their faces. Now this must be
a lie, not a superstition, – an invention of some nurse who
had over laid her infant – singularly useful as an excuse
among this sleepy people.
Of the wise Ferrol expedition we know nothing
more than that it has failed.Epidemic, not contagious. if
so we are safe. the Siroc blew for nine weeks at Cadiz. – if
this was the cause the rains will remove it – or the winter
– if it contagious Lisbon is in hourly & imminent
danger. an immense contraband trade is carried on thro the
bye passes of the mountains. guard the frontier towns
however vigilantly it is impossible to guard the whole line
of frontier where Nature has made no boundary. the disease
will be smuggled in. indeed my chief reason for believing it
not to be contagious, is that it has not reached us. If it
comes we fly – perhaps to England – perhaps to Porto &
the mountains. the last plan will be sufficiently safe &
what I shall prefer – but my Uncle
will decide.
Thus have we Pestilence knocking at the door,
& War in sight. it was a saying of John 5.
I desired John May to send ten pounds to you, which Martha will lay
out for her
sister. Thomas
wrote me word that he expected [MS torn] Mother &
Aunt at
Hereford – so I could not send it to her, & Edith knows no
direction to her sisters, who have wisely omitted to mention
it. on this account I sent it to you. direct you when you
write to my
Uncle only, Chaplain to the British Forces. this will frank the letter, &
you may mark it for mine, by an S by
the wafer.
I have scrawled the first part of this letter
in the dark – hurrying over it that I may not lose an
opportunity of sending it to Lisbon. Of late I have neither
gained nor lost ground. the stimulus of novelty is over, I
am unwell at times – but I shall expect something from escaping the severity
of your winter, & from the Exercise which the weather
then will allow me to take. About Persian manuscripts I
think I spoke formerly. I could as easily catch the Sophy –
& might as well look for the Mogul.
We shall in a few weeks return to Lisbon. not unwillingly. indeed now Thalaba is done I want to be within reach of the Libraries & at work. The Packet brings me no news of Peggy – I look for it with anxiety – not with hope. our love to your mother. it is uncomfortable to ask how she is & recollect the weeks that must elapse before an answer is possible. I wish Sam Reid were coming here. I could make his stay at Lisbon very pleasant, & accompany him every where. remember me to Davy. If he & his Laboratory were at hand I would not run from the Black Vomit. Rickman I apprehend has wholly settled at London. the fit place for him. he will be very useful, & soon acquire reputation. God bless you! in a land flowing with wine & oil, I often remember old Bristol & wish myself there. it is worth while to go abroad for the sake of returning.