1381. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 24 November 1807 ⁠* 

Tuesday. 24 Nov. 1807.

My dear Rickman

Bedford tells me you are arrived in town, & I avail myself of that knowledge to return to him thro you these ill-looking pension papers.

Thank you for what you have done at Burton. It is not a little provoking that Biddlecombe’s delay has been the means of keeping me twelve months from the London division of my books, which but for him, would have been duly arranged here four months ago. [1] 

About my projected journey, – it cannot take place so soon as you wish & as I should wish also & for two or three reasons. My Uncle is in this Lisbon convoy which has been on the seas five weeks struggling with these dreadful winds. Heaven knows what is become of it – I look daily & anxiously for news, & hope it has been able to put into Cork. Something my movements must depend upon his. – You were right in remembering that I had renounced reviewing. Arthur Aikin however chose to forget this, & has loaded down books upon me, which I should have returned, – if it had not unluckily been convenient to retain them for the purpose of making an item on the right side of Longmans ledger. I am about them now, – there is nothing which I do so with so little satisfaction, & therefore xxxxx xxxxxxxx it is of all work the slowest. – These must be done before I can stir, – & then – I must settle pros & cons in my own mind whether it be absolutely necessary that I should take the journey at all. Certain it is that I should collect much matter both for the introduction & notes to my forth-coming quarto, – but the materials already at hand are more than room can be found for; – & I weigh the misery of travelling, the expence, & the loss of time, – & find little to set against them except the pleasure of seeing my friends. By the time the campaign of reviewing is done I shall better be able to determine. xx

My printer Pople gets on excellently well with the Cid [2]  – four & twenty sheets of which are printed, making more than half the body of the work. The removal of my Uncle to England will not be agreable to him, & deprives me of a literary purveyor at Lisbon: it will however facilitate the Hist: of Brazil [3]  & materially improve it. He is better acquainted with the state of that country than any <other> person who has never visited it, & is master of that knowledge which is precisely xxxx what I have least aptness in acquiring, – details respecting the mines & their produce &c. – Whatever turn politics may take with respect to Brazil, it is hardly possible but that much temporary curiosity must be excited concerning that country, by which I may profit.

The expulsion of the English will affect my pursuits in another manner. During my last residence in Portugal I noted down whatever fell under came either to eye or the ear, both senses being habitually upon the alert. I have materials enough for a saleable volume; – & now no longer any notion for witholding them. [4]  These therefore will perhaps make a part of my ways & means for the ensuing year. On nothing however can I determine till my Uncle arrives. He & Harry were to sail the 12th of last month, in the Betsey, but he neglected to tell me where she was bound. To Liverpool if they mean to steer their course here, which Harry must needs do, & my Uncle probably will. The convoy did not sail till the 19th – still time enough has elapsed to make me sufficiently uncomfortable, considering what dreadful weather they have had to endure.

How goes on Duppa’s affair? I had a letter from him lately, but he does not hint at it. Wordsworth wrote to Lambeth to help him there, & I applied to Wynn, thinking he might possibly find some access to the Lady Chancellor. [5] 

This rascally Copenhagen business has cost us more men than it would have done to have fought the combined fleets of all the rest of the world & beaten them. [6]  With the best cause in the world, we have contrived to put ourselves in the wrong, & to make ourselves more detested, & even with more xxxxx justice, than Bonaparte. Marquis Wellesley I guess to be the main mover of this atrocious policy – It is in character with his Indian measures. [7] 

I know nothing of the sale of Espriella, – but have heard well of the book in sundry chance directions, & am led to augur well of it. It is very much my wish to compleat the view of England which is there begun, – & which two more volumes would do. [8]  In that case D Manuel would come again to the North & bring letters of introduction to me, from whom he would learn something concerning English literature, – a subject on which he is very little versed at present. – Did you get a copy of Palmerin? [9]  you will not like it, for it is very inferior to Amadis  [10]  & I think you undervalued that. – It will answer better to the booksellers than to me. If these books could in some degree supersede x novels they would do some good, soldier-officers being the main consumers of that precious commodity.

Coleridge lectures now beyond a doubt, – for he has been partly paid in advance. [11]  I cannot tell what his plans of living are, – it is pretty clear that they are changed. – We go on well, my daughter growing at a great rate – Herbert slow at teething, & kept back by it. The unborn will come with the snow drops. My eyes have been weak, & I think the weakness was produced by cold. – at least a velvet cap at evening has removed it, & I now write in the costume of Matthew Prior. [12] 

Remember me to Mrs R. At any rate I shall see her & you in the summer, tho Mahomet should not go to the mountain.

God bless you

RS.