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British Library, Add MS 30927. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 126-131 [in part]; Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800-1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 146-149 [in part].
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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y.
12. 1801.
On Tuesday we crossed the river to Casilhas
point – procured jack asses & proceeded to a place
called Costaxx old sculpture long
weather worn. all below belongs to the sea – but on the bare
sands a numerous tribe have fixed their habitations – which
exactly resemble the wigwams of the Nootka savages.t Joseph
& the Virgin Mary. we took our dinner – added fish to it
there – rode about two miles & reembarked at the Trifana
– & returned after as pleasant a day as
ever-pleasure-party experienced.
In riding to Odivellas I saw somewhat curious
– it was a Padroña by the
road side. we have no other word in English – & it
occurs often in romance – for a place raised by the wayside
where a station or inscription is placed: there was an image
of Christ there – & some unaccountable inscriptions
about robbery & hiding heaven in the earth, which a
series of pictures in tiles behind, explained. A hundred
years ago the church at Odivellas was robbed of the church
plate & of the sacrament – then I saw the thief playing
at skittles when the sacristan of the church past by – whom
he followed in & hid himself – then I saw him robbing
the altar – next “you shall see how he hid the
church-dresses in the house of a woman – & here he is
burying the sacrament plate in a vineyard upon this very
spot. here he is examined upon suspicion & denies all,
& says who ever did the sacrilege ought to have his
hands cut off. here he is taken in the act of stealing the
fowls of the convent – & he confesses all. here they dig
up the hidden treasure & carry it back in a solemn
procession – here he is going to execution – here you see
his hands cut off according to his own sentence – & here
he is strangled & burnt. It is remarkable that in almost
all these tiles the face of the criminal is broken to pieces
– probably in abhorrence of his guilt. The loss of the Wafer
has been ever regarded as a national calamity – to be
lamented with public prayers & fasts & processions.
It happened at Mexico in the Conquerors days, &
Cortez
Yet bad as these places are the Mail Coach has made them still worse. that is it has rendered the people less civil & made the expences heavier.
We crost the Zezere. a river of importance in the history of Portugal, as its banks form the great protection of Lisbon. it is the place where a stand might most effectually be made against an invading army. the river is fine – about our Avon width at Rownham, & flowing between hills of our Clifton & Leigh height that are covered with heath, & gum-cistus. the water is beautifully clear, & the bottom sand. like all mountain streams the Zezere is of irregular & untameable force. in summer horsemen ford it. in winter the ferry price varies according to the resistance of the current – from one vintem to nine – that is from a penny to a shilling. It then enters the Tagus with equal waters – sometimes with a larger body, for as the rains may have fallen heavier East or North, the one river with its rush almost stagnates the other.
At Pombal we saw Our Ladys Oven – where
annually a fire is kindled – a wafer baked – & a man,
the Shadracht
Christofer on the bridge. three grains of his leg – taken in
a glass of water is a sovereign cure for the ague – &
poor St Christofers legs are almost worn
out by the extent of the practice. Torres Vedras is the
place where Father Antony of the Wounds
A more interesting subject is our return. My
Uncle
will I think return with us – or at least speedily follow.
We look forward to the expulsion of the English as only
avoidable by a general peace – & this so little probable
that all preparations are making for removal. My Uncle is
sending away all his books – & I am now in the dirt of
packing. I look on to his return as the only means of
extricating my Mother from that miserable situation – to which
she will else ever return like a dog to his vomit, in spite
of all my intreaties & effort.xxxtter – but with no
pleasant anticipation of English taxes & English climate
& small beer – after this blessed sun – & the wines
of Portugal. my health has received all the benefit I could
& did expect. a longer residence would I think render
the amendment permanent; & with this idea the prospect
of an hereafter return to compleat the latter part of my
history is by no means unpleasant.
God bless you & keep you from the North seas. I have written in haste – obliged to write letters on my return – & not having leisure to write half. Ediths love. I know not when or where we shall meet – but when I am on English ground the distance between us will not be so unpassable – farewell –