2995. Robert Southey to Edith Southey, 11 May 1817⁠* 

Calais. Sunday morning. 11 May. 1817.

My dear Edith

Here we are safe & sound, after a slow, comfortable but very easy passage of fourteen hours.

At half past six on Friday morning I sallied from Q Anne Street, with a porter carrying my luggage. – it consisted of a portmanteau a size larger than the old one, & a smaller one, value twelve shillings to carry shoes, night shirt, shaving tackle &c. In Oxford Street I called for Senhouse, & the two divisions having thus formed a junction proceeded to take up the third in George Street. We then advanced to the Brown Bear or the Black one [1]  (his complection is of little consequence) & there found M^rs Vardon & dear old fellow traveller William. [2]  We had taken the whole stage (inside) as far as Rochester. There we parted company Nash going on with Mrs V to Ospringe [3]  (the place where you & I slept on our way from Dover. Senhouse & myself had 2 ½ miles to walk to the Artillery Barracks, where Col. Pasley [4]  exhibited sundry parts of his profession as a lesson for me. a small mine was sprung, a little torpedo exploded which threw up the water & the machine annexed to it sixty or so feet in the air, – hand grenades were thrown, & I saw all the processes of sapping & mining, & went into a mine, being let down about thirty feet by a windlass. This was the work of several hours, after which we dined at the mess. – a red-coat table d’hote. The officers were very intelligent men, – particularly a Major Reed, [5]  –who tho not more than four or six & twenty had gone thro the whole Spanish war – We got back to our inn a little before ten, took tea & went to bed immediately, & I had a nights sound sleep undisturbed by carriages or watchmen.

Yesterday we rose at six, & got to breakfast at Ospringe – there we found Nash M^rs V & Miss V, with their maid, a new lass. [6]  We proceeded in two chaises & got a little after two o clock to Dover. Then after a little consultation we found it good economy to hire a packet for ten guineas rather than be delayed at the inn till noon the next day, & accordingly at five o clock we moved out of the harbour, with a fair wind in a beautiful evening, – but with appearances of rain. The wind was a little too much to the South, & drove us to leeward so that we could not run the tide. & at ten at night we thought better to remain on board than get onto a French boat a mile & half from the harbour. M^rs V. was sick, her maid & Miss V desperately so: – neither Senhouse, nor Nash, nor myself suffered in the least. Sufficiently uncomfortable however we were. At seven this morning we entered the harbour, & here I am shaved, purified, & better than I was by a good breakfast, – for my Wolf has returned.

Senhouse wrote from Dover, & wishes you could send a line from Keswick to Miss Wood [7]  to notify his safe arrival. I have two or three letters to write & therefore must conclude. M^rs V. xxxx xxxxx leaves us here, & will meet us at Waterloo to spend a day there on our way back. Love to all – God bless you my dearest Edith

RS.

I shall call on Sir Jere [8]  this afternoon, & peradventure sup with him.