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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 23. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 160-163 [dated ‘At sea, June 1801’]; Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800-1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 175-177 [dated ‘At sea, June 1801’–12 July 1801].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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In tribulation of trullibubs & trouble of tripes do I begin O Grosvenor. it is not always easy, as you know to
settle ones mind – but prithee take one voyage & it will convince you that it is far more difficult to settle the stomach. I have
now been six days & nights at sea, & in that time a lame jackass would have carried me as fast & as far. & Southey what
have you been doing? – Oh I have been – very sick. you might rhyme to the question if you please. the weather cock has thought proper
to point the wrong way, & in contradiction to all proverbs & all our prayers obstinately stand still. we are just now overjoyed
at a change of only two points. I have however discovered an excellent substitute for sea sickness, which you know is so fashionable a
remedy for sensory disorders – or rather a method for making people sea sick upon shore. put the death
patient <to bed> in a long wooden box, six feet by two, with bedding, N.B. a coffin will do. hang
them <him> up in a dark room, rock them <him> well, make
a great noise & a great stink – & my life for it they <he> will soon be as sick as heart
can wish. I have made another discovery – that I am very good natured, not having one drop of gall in my gall bladder, when the whole
contents of my inside came out in long procession. But even worse than sickness is this insufferable tedium – the mill-stone weight of
time! I would write practical comments upon the Book of Job – if there were a Bible on board. A days travelling in wind & wet over
a wilderness of gum cistus is positive happiness in comparison.not withstanding <tho> I had determined to catch a mermaid & make a fortune by showing her
myself.
If I am neither taken prisoner nor drowned on the way, & if none of the common chances of land life turn up against
me – why I may be soon in London. Seven days & always a bad wind till this halfhour when it has changed for – no wind at all. my
watch is gone to sleep – poor thing! like K. Charles
And now the fourteenth day is come – & we are within a few <few> hours sail
of Falmouth, & it blows so heavy a gale on shore, & so thick a mist from the south accompanies it that we are steering up
channel in prudent fear. now would I give a few fingers & toes for four & twenty – aye for half a dozen hours of Lisbon
weather. here I am as a Paddy would say in sight of my own country only I cant see it for one of my own country
fogs. tis a poor comfort to be in English weather when we want to be in England. – You paint Hope leaning upon an anchor – Hope upon
deck were a better personification.
Returning after an absence – even no longer than mine has been – is by no means a circumstance of unmingled pleasure.
It is nearly fifteen months since I left Bristol, & like Nourjahadx which if <I had been> on the spot would have come gradually & gently on.
many acquaintance I have in that time lost – two of them young men,
______
And have you received Thalaba?
______
July 12. Bristol – God be praised for my safe return. – I find little to chear me here. – my Cousin Margaret is dying. she has been wishing to live to see me – yet I wish it had been spared. these things are best at a distance – the spent ball bruises only – not wounds. poor girl – she was to me the dearest of my family.
Write & direct to Danvers.