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. 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. 339–343; Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 68–69 [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.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.
Your Wortigerne reached me,es in the twelve lines. he found no less
than 27 genera, each totally different from the other & many of them impossible to have ever been used in
writing (except with a design of producing a strange unsightliness) from the various manners in which it was necessary to hold the pen
in tracing them. These es I shall place at the bottom of the fac-simile.
Sir Herberts letter I saw in the Gentlemans Magazinenot noticed xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxx xxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx admitted no personality, his own letter sufficiently proves the truth of my statement. do you know that he is
distantly related to me?xxxxxx <origin>, a name which has continued in my mothers
family since they branched from the Croft stock.
Your epigrams
I wait with unpleasant anxiety the letters from Lisbon which will decide my destination. Lisbon I hope will be the
place, old recollections attract me there, & the prospect of employment in the History of the Kingdom,rs McDonalds. 5. Nicholsons Street.
–––––
I hav my destination is now settled. we are in all the bustle of preparing for a twelvemonths absence
from England, & purpose leaving this place in a fortnight on our way to Falmouth, & Lisbon. If I were not villainously sick at
sea – the whole anticipation would be pleasant – but the certainty of intestine commotions excites qualms already –
Between the setting foot on board a ship and leaving it in port the interim is like a phantasma or a hideous dream! – My intention is seriously to undertake the History of Portugal, & to qualify myself for the task by travelling over the whole of the little Kingdom, & well understanding the site of every place whereof it may be my office to write. no country possesses a better series of chronicles. I shall visit the various Convent Libraries & hunt out all scarcer documents. twelvemonths well employed will suffice for the collection of materials – & if otherwise – I am not limited to time. One thing I shall especially attempt in writing history. to weave the manners of the times, as far as can properly be done into the narrative – instead of crowding the volumes with appendix chapters. rather in this point to resemble the old chroniclers than the modern historians.
You will direct to me with the Reverend Herbert Hill. Lisbon.
your gossamery paper, which I have sometimes growled <at> for letting the ink thro, will suit well the post office of a country
where an extravagant price is charged by weight. remember that as for society – such as suits my habits – Lisbon is always in a state
of famine – & that the receipt of a letter in a foreign country is a joy which lasts for a week. My intention is, if peace permits,
to return thro the South of Spain & over the Pyrenees to Calais. surely there will not be another years war – & I would wait
some months for peace beyond xxx the proposed limits of my stay. Much however depends upon the effects
which the climate may produce upon me. experiments upon health [MS torn] important in their result not to excite some anxiety. my
complaint is probably not organic, but it remains to be proved removable, & only from climate can I expect this.
In the course of ten days you will receive the Anthology. I will send it to Harry in his parcel, & he can forward it thro Yarmouth. for the third volume I shall delegate my authority. I am sorry my name was given in the Reviews & Monthly
Magazine,
Let me hear from you before my departure.