William Webb (c. 1771–1845): Deputy Commissary-General in the British Army. Webb had written to Southey in 1817 to defend the quality of the horses sent out to Portugal in 1808 to pull the British Army’s artillery and Southey had included Webb’s defence at History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. 554–555. The poor quality of the artillery horses was one of the reasons given for British forces not advancing after their victory in the Battle of Vimeiro (1808). In 1824 he solicited Southey’s advice on finding a publisher. The work he was trying to place was probably Minutes of Remarks on Subjects Picturesque, Moral, and Miscellaneous, Made in a Course Along the Rhine, and During a Residence in Swisserland and Italy, in the Years 1822 and 1823, which appeared in 1827.