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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800-1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 170-173.
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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I am about to return, for some half dozen cogent reasons. it is
better get off leisurely than wait the hurry of expulsion which cannot be far
distant. summer is near – to remove for a short time to Cintra would be troublesome & disjoint
all my studies – to remain x here would be
taking a spell of Purgatory. if a decent ship offers for Bristol of course it is
preferable. if not I must perforce take the Packet – it is enormously dear – now
20 guineas each person. it cost sixty pounds to bring us here from Bristol. – to
clear myself here I drew a few days since for 40 £. the most irksome expence is
what my books will cost at the English custom houses, a heavy & disgraceful
duty which ought to be abolished. – When I shall have been six or eight months
in England some of my crops will be in such a state of forwardness that I can
subsist upon them till all arrears are cleared. Wherever I may land you will
suffer me to draw on you for the passage & journey. I have spent largely in
books – yet often spared when I would willingly have spent. my collection
however will supply long labour & repay it. when I have gone thro it will be
time enough to collate & compare & correct with other authors. It is of
all toil the pleasantest – my notes will be essential otter
At last I have got the Wars of Granada for you.
I do not think the Days of Queen Mary can be in danger from the
Catholic question.
Loyola was the perfect Don Quixote of popery. he literally read
Saint-books till he became as made in
Saint-errantry as the dear La Manchan.
—
Our packets are now hurried off faster than is convenient for
private letter-writing, we have the Spaniards in
Portugalt Cyrsee de fun, if there is to be any. One peep
at the Inquisition by day light! One scrap of Dagonnot the time. It is not France that will regenerate Spain
& Portugal. France dares not unite & strengthen this peninsula – which
is the policy of England, & ought to be her aim. melt them in the burning
fiery furnace – there will be some scum & scoria – but the liquid metals
will then & then only amalgamate. it is the only possible union. Ireland was
not laid cooly on the anvil.
– Pray keep for me the law about the Clergys privilege for
robbery & rape. I have found out how an English Bishop beat a Spanish Bp at Rome – & how they fought at the Basle
Why did you vote for so abominable a foreign postage? every remittance from
hence now costs a Merchant eleven shillings! – 2 draughts at 4s – 4d each – & 2s,
2d the letter that acknowledges one. & the still more abominable tax upon paper! – Will the
day ever arrive when all taxes shall be commuted for a fair tax upon income?