732. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 12 November [1802] ⁠* 

Dear Wynn

Yours by Mackintosh [1]  arrived. I did not immediately acknowledge it because when an answer would find you was uncertain. moreover I have been ill from head to foot – & am now but slowly recovering. Whether some particular Cold fell in love with me – for it came in by the eyes – or if the winter was beginning to nip me & my geraniums at the same time – I cannot tell. but what with collyriums for my poor eyes, plucking out an old grinder, attacking fever by James’s powder, [2]  & clearing out the canal by help of rhubarb & magnesia I hope I am convalescent, but do not feel it quite enough. for about ten days ago I could not read, & I cannot yet write freely. tho I would risque my eyes my head will not bear it.

I expect a MSS. chronicle from Lisbon every day. [3]  one of the oldest writt extant. written about 1450, & this <copy> I suppose nearly as old as the work itself. Have you received the Cid? [4]  The Amadis [5]  is printing. the proofs are franked to me. But every thing is at a stop with me just now. business & amusement – things natural & non-natural – all plaguily out of order. I had some quaint thoughts in my illness – how foolish it was for November. who liked no body out of health. & whom no body in health liked ever to come to a country place where he is so little welcome – how much better it would be for Parliament to suspend Winter instead of the Habeas Corpus [6]  – & if as the King can do any thing – he would but have the goodness to move the Island a little southward

God bless you

R S.

Kingsdown Bristol