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Guildhall Library, London, MS 03109. Previously published: J. W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), I, pp. 358–363 [in part]; Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 139–140 [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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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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I am perplexed about Harry. remain he must not & ought
not. to himself it must be irksome & now little advantageous – to Mr
Maurice unhandsome & unjust. he has literally no home, & this difficulty of an intermediate resting place is what now
distresses me. I have sent my Thalaba to market & demand an hundred guineas for a first edition. getting this sum I do not
doubt,
It has been suggested to me
But it is time to talk of Portugal. we have as yet escaped the yellow Fever, & the yellow Fever will effectually
guard us against the French & Spaniards, if any danger could be apprehended from invasion. no such danger has ever existed. before
a French army could scale Lisbon the whole species would be embarked – & here the property is kept in chests ready at a moments
alarm. the multitude of ships always in the Tagus would take off the more valuable merchandise – plunder therefore cannot allure the
French here. the remaining bales of cotton would not pay their soldiers – nor the sugar casks sweeten their lemonade. besides
provisions are scarce both here & in Spain. a hostile army could not subsist six weeks. If however the French should chuse to take
possession of Lisbon in order to distress England – the blow would speedily recoil. a fleet would block up the Tagus & famine
speedily drive them over the Pyrenees. Spain & Portugal must one day blend into one country. the hour is not yet come. one country
is not strong enough to conquer – both too unenlightend to unite. You then as well as we, will wonder at the enormous army quartered
here – if you can wonder at any ministerial absurdity. the most probable opinion here is that it is a collusion between the courts of
Madrid & Lisbon managed by France – to get as many English troops here as possible – in order to keep them quiet. they solicited
for Abercrombieswere <are> paid. of course the discount goes to account – & the arrears must be one day
paid!
I am up to the ears in chronicles. a pleasant days amusement – but battles & folios & Moors & Monarchs
teaze me terribly in my dreams. I have just obtained access to the public Manuscripts – & the records of the Inquisition tempt me.
five folios – the whole black catalogue! yet I am somewhat shy of laying heretical hands upon these bloody annals. the Holy Office is
not dead – but sleepeth.the I obtain access thro one of the Censors of Books herealm scarcely any. but for
what regards the peninsula – for church & monastic history – & the laborious & valuable compilations of the last centuries
– a more compleat collection does not probably exist.
I regret my approaching return to England & earnestly wish I could remain six or seven years in a country whose climate so well suits me, & where I could find ample & important occupation. Once more I must return when my history shall be as far compleated as is possible at home, to give it its last corrections here.
The fits of alarm respecting the yellow fever are periodical. about once a week we have a days panic. not causelessly –
look at Beja in the map – it has been there – but the Bishop
t Roques life is advertised in the Madrid gazette – as the saint to be called in, in pestilence.
St Sebastian also is famous in these cases. Earthly remedies none have been found – or none [MS torn] Lisbon.
even now the nature of the disease is differentl[MS torn] reported – & the method of treatment not known. We trust to cold weather
& the rains. Should these only suspend the contagion – if it breaks [MS torn] again in the spring, it must inevitably reach Lisbon,
& I shall then think of my own safety.
From England nothing has reached me but the unhappy Alfred of poor Cottle.