3835. Robert Southey to William Westall, 10 May 1822

Address: To/ William Westall Esq^re/ 19. Mornington Place/ Hampstead Road
Stamped: [partial] T P/ B West^mr
Postmark: 2 o’Clock/ 13 MY/ 1822 ANⁿ
MS: Pennsylvania State University Library. ALS; 3p.
Previously published: Eliza Beshero-Bondar, ‘Nine New Letters of Robert Southey’, The Wordsworth Circle, 30.1 (1999), 49–50.

Keswick. 10 May. 1822

My dear Westall

These are indeed magnificent subjects, – nothing can be finer in their kind & they have fallen into good hands.

⁽¹⁾

Under the river scene you had better say “Passage of the Tagus at Villa-Velha,” not Villa-Velha simply, because that is the name of a wretched old town which is not seen in the print. I cannot send you the reference to this, because it will occur in the last chapter, where I must put in a sentence on purpose for to introduce it.

⁽²⁾

The other you must either call Marvao xx with Marvão; with that mark over the ã, or Marvam which is the manner whereby the same sound is denoted to a Portugueze eye, & which I have always followed. The reference to this is Vol 1. Ch. 10. p. 483.

⁽³⁾

Guarda is Vol 1. Ch. 10. p. 496.

⁽⁴⁾

That for Cintra

⁽⁵⁾

I cannot give you till the clean sheets reach me. If you have any wish to give a page of letter press with each, it would be very easy for me to supply it.

Airey

⁽⁶⁾

was spoken to about your pencils & waited for lead of one of the sorts before he could execute the order. An opportunity would have offered for sending them next month by a friend of mine, whom I expect here in June, & to whom I shall be very glad to introduce you, if you happen to be here at that time because he is one of the best-hearted men in the world

It will give us great pleasure to be introduced to M^rs Westall & to my godson.

⁽⁷⁾

Remembrances from all who are at home to send them. Edith is at Harrogate with Miss Hutchinson.

God bless you –
Yrs very truly
Robert Southey.

You had better not say A Moorish Town after Marvam it is not more so than all other towns in Portugal.

Notes

1. Westall was producing A Series of Views of Spain and Portugal, to Illustrate Mr. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War; Drawn on Stone by W. Westall, A.R.A., from Sketches by General Hawker, Mr. Locker, Mr. Heaphy, &c. Part I, containing Eight Views, illustrating Vol. I (1823). These could be inserted into the first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]

2. History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, p. 758, where Southey noted that the crossing of the Tagus at Villa Velha was ‘a point, which, in former wars, has been considered the key to Lisbon’.[back]

3. History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp 483–486 ,where Southey recounted the heroic resistance to the French invaders of Portugal by Antonio Leite de Araujo Ferreira Bravo (dates unknown), the magistrate of Marvão, a small border town.[back]

4. Guarda is a Portuguese town burnt and looted by French troops in July 1808; History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. 496–497.[back]

5. Cintra was the site of the Convention of Cintra, 30 August 1808, History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. 575–578.[back]

6. John Airey (c. 1771–1846), Keswick bookseller, stationer and pencil manufacturer. He was one of the earliest developers of large-scale pencil manufacturing in Keswick.[back]

7. Westall had married Ann Sedgwick (1789–1862) in 1820. Their first child was William Westall (1821–1901), later a clergyman.[back]

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The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven