515. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 20 April [1800] ⁠* 

Falmouth. Sunday 20^th April 1800 [1] 

My dear Wynn

We arrived here safely, after sundry delays & accidents, on Friday night. the packet by which I wished to sail has been detained by the wind, which still continues adverse. I am now impatient to be gone – but it is not unlikely that we may have to wait the change of the moon before the wind will change.

Falmouth is a comfortless place. the weather that detains the packet is dirty, & delay here is like the day-after-day respite of a man who must be hung at last. – When you write give me the particulars of the shocking murder you mentioned [2]  – you said enough to excite curiosity.

I am eager to be at Lisbon & at work. Whether it be that my brain has been shaken into activity – or that it has grown rich by long lying fallow, or that a certain degree of agitation is favourable to mental exertion, I know not – but my head is full & overflowing.

God bless you –

Robert Southey.