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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. 80–83.
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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Here then I am once more, safe over the seas. our passage was uncommonly fine – five days & a half only. light
winds the whole way, yet I never suffered so much from sickness. Edith was
dreadfully affected. We left Falmouth at five on Thursday afternoon. the three following days I merely crawled out of bed for the sake
of washing myself, & then lay down again, scarcely eating or sleeping. On the Monday morning about six I heard the CaptainKing
George.
Endymion.Prince Ernest.the her side, & saw the smoke from her matches. we hailed her. she answered in broken English, & past us. her
language left us no doubt that she was French & we imagined it was a manouvre either to bear round us, or to attack the other
Packet. She was English however, manned chiefly from Guernsey. I replaced my musquet in the chest with no small satisfaction. my xx former feeling had been an undistinguishable mass of wonder & apprehension, but when that was over
it was pure joy that was left. The comfort at feeling two legs, two arms & a head upon my shoulders put my stomach in good humour
for half the day. Now it is a subject of satisfaction that I have seen all the preparatory bustle of a sea fight, tho certainly in none
of the pleasure: packet sailors will fight well, but not with enthusiasm – they get nothing by a prize. this regulation is owing to the
folly of one in the American war – or the war before last, who left her course to take a French vessel. the moment she came alongside,
the Frenchman opened his ports, which had been somehow disguised, & the packet was obliged to strike without firing a gun. –
Immediately after this we saw Cape Finisterre, & were boarded by the Endymion Frigate. it was a busy morning – & to make it
more so the porpusses played around the vessel & we saw a small grampus. on Tuesday we saw Cape Mondego – but still the land lay
like a cloud scarcely visible to a strong eye. Tuesday night we made the Berlings. Wednesday I rose at sun rise – the sun was rising
over the rock of Lisbon. the flat shores of Yarmouth would have been delightful to me, but this was magnificent. we were very near the
shore <land> – the wind fresh, the breakers swelling up along the shore, & multitudes of
sea birds sporting over their silver dust. the heights of Cintra rose upon us & I
distinguished the Penha convent, & the summits which I had trod. we continued close along the land. you know the entrance up the
Tagus is wonderfully fine. four years had unfamiliarized all objects – they had a white wash of novelty. we anchored soon after ten
& my Uncle was immediately on board. at night we took possession of our
house. it is very small & quite Portugueze, but large enough & delightfully situated. if I turn my head xxxxxx from this table I look over the Tagus to Almeida & the farther shores of Alentejo, & a
boundary of hills high as Malvern. houses are very difficult to find upon the hill. a niece of Lord Lansdown
I have not yet been out. yesterday was given to arranging our things – letter writing – & the evening to visitors.
I go this morning to the Envoy
Portugal offers some novelties – a paper money which the government t[MS obscured]es discounted immediately at six per
cent– & which is now only worth 20 per cent. about a fortnight since they paid their sailors with this at par.
honest & wise people! the sailors found it 80 per cent short, & rioted & hallooed for Liberty & Bonaparte. this was
soon quelled & the ringleaders apprehended, but no example, has been made, nor is it perhaps needful where all ranks are equally
indolent & stupid. It is a strange feeling to walk these streets; a Heathen God upon earth was nothing to an Englishman among this
dirty, debilitated, lazy, lousy, generation. A Mail Coach is established to Coimbra & will run on to Porto when the road is made. A
Mail Coach that actually travels eight miles an hour. this is little less than miraculous.
You have heard from Bedford the history of the copying
machine.t Yescombe. Falmouth. Yescombe will take care of it. he is a very friendly man. & my Uncles name bring it safely on shore. mine must only be on the inner direction.
Yescombe was a prisoner in Robespierres time.xxx first days dinner. he told me it was the finest happiest
day he had ever witnessed. It would be well for poor human nature if all the good actions occasioned by the French Revolution, were as
faithfully chronicled as its public follies & atrocities.
Today I shall see Lord Somervillehere. The Consul here it is supposed will succeed to Walpole who is going to England for his health. he is an old
Westminster, but before my recollection – Arbuthnot.
I cannot write to Bedford by this packet. he shall hear from me by the next.
I have seen Pitcairne. he says I have no organic disease – but a miserably diseased irritability that I have done the best thing possible in coming to the best possible climate. & that I must be in no hurry to return. Time will cure me assuredly if I can afford time. the only prescription is the occasional & moderate use of laudanum, self-administered. – I was much pleased with him