147. Robert Southey to [Robert Lovell] [fragment], [started before and continued on] 19 February 1796 ⁠* 

[MS missing] carries the marks of [MS missing] signalizing my gay pantaloons & [MS missing] one tooth brush — one comb — a pound of [MS missing] pair of shoes; Maber has as much rea[MS missing] Miss lived well upon the road. tost about [MS missing] air water & earth — & enduring what I have f[MS missing] I am in high health. my Uncle & I never moles[MS missing] principles — I used to work Maber sometimes — but he[MS missing] I am so intimate with or with whom I wish intimacy. [MS missing] visiting & as little society as you can wish — & a Bristol Alder[large section, about 2/3rds of a page of MS missing]l ill gain — every thing was [MS missing]mily to Lisbon. the old fellow recovered [MS missing] very in readiness — fell ill again & died. [MS missing]ave ever since <been> uniformly languid, & tho the [MS missing]ngland & troops to Spain, they never believed themselves [MS missing]ill the French took their ships at the mouth of the [MS missing] of the two courts at Badajos is supposed to have been [MS missing] surmized that Spain meant to draw Portugal into an alliance [MS missing]try however parted upon bad terms. a war with Spain is not [large section, about 2/3rds of a page, of MS missing] lovely hills & plains of Cornwall.

I might have been provoked to one great execration by what I hear from Bristol, if I had not hex brought up all my bile upon the voyage & remained pigeon-livered ever since. a sea voyage is the best way in the world to learn Xtian meekness. the gall comes out by mouthfuls & you have not bitterness enough left to be angry with a rascal

Remember me to Heath [1]  — & Harwood [2]  & if you <see> Jennings tell him I shall write by the next packet which will be on the road before you can receive this. I utter Spanish to Mambrino [3]  — & talk French with an Abbe — & with the Court Improvisatore who treats me on Sunday with poetry & parmesan. [large section, about 2/3rds of a page, of MS missing] getting some to day — & Malmsey such as makes a man envy Clarence. [4] 

I enjoy one comfort here — my Uncle has erected a temple to Cloacina [5]  a goddess whose mysteries the Portuguese celebrate in the open air — to the great scandal of all who have been accustomed to more decent rites. the Spaniards have as little sense of her religion, & I observed only the ruins of one temple at Corūna, during my journey thro Spain — this from its antiquity might have been Roman — but I rather conceive it to have been the hasty work of some Englishman addicted to his national rites — When the golden shower descends upon <near> a man the fright would make him faint — did not the stink preserve him.

farewell. love to Mrs L.

Robert Southey.

Friday Feb^y. 19. 1796.

the packet sails Sunday.