2290. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 15 August 1813 ⁠* 

Keswick. Aug 15. 1813.

My dear Grosvenor

That you may not be daily wondering where I am I write xx merely to say that one of my eyelids has thought proper to swell, & reduce me to the state of a semi-Cupid, – or rather semi-demi-Cupid, – the eye being only half closed. The inflammation does not extend to the eye, & is so slow in its progress, if indeed it progresses (as the Yankees say) at all, that I think it more likely to disperse, than to gather. But I cannot pack up myself up for forty four’s hours rath jumbling in a mail coach while it continues, lest in the feverish fatigue which th such an operation induces, the inflammation should reach the eye. – The delay is unlucky, xx for I always <like to> do a disagreable thing as soon as it can possibly be done; & of all disagreable things going from home is the worst.

Scott was here on Wednesday last <week> & spent the <a> day with me. He seemed to think that the Bs. [1]  would accede to what I thought right, & I left the matter conversation with a resul determination if they do not of appealing to him as arbitrator. I shewed him Roderick [2]  & he prophecied that it would make a strong impression. – I got a present by this visit which has saved me some money – a good seal I meant to have procurd one in town – When lo Scott produced one from his waistcoat pocket saying it had been given him, & the best use he could make of it was to beg that I would affix it to my x valet chain. The stone is an oriental topaz, the full size for a seal.

RS.