“. . . . . De Anthologiâ, which is of or concerning the
Anthology. As I hope to be
picking up lava from Etna, I cannot be tying up nosegays here in England; but
blind Tobin, whom you
know,—God bless him for a very good fellow!—but
Tobin the blind is very unwilling that no more
anthologies should appear; wherefore there will be more volumes, with which,
all I shall have to do, will be to see that large-paper copies be printed to
continue sets,—becoming myself only a gentleman contributor: to which
ingenious publication I beg your countenance, sir, and support. . . . . You ask
me questions about my future plans which I cannot readily answer, only that if
I got a decent salary abroad, even should my health take a fancy to this queer
climate, I have no estate to retire to at home, and so shall have a good
prudential reason for remaining there. My dreams incline to Lisbon as a
resting-place; I am really attached to the country,
| 162 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 27. |
“These lakes are like rivers; but oh for the Mondego and the Tagus! And these mountains, beautifully indeed are they shaped and grouped; but oh for the great Monchique! and for Cintra, my paradise!—the heaven on earth of my hopes; and if ever I should have a house at Cintra, as in earnest sincerity I do hope I shall, will not you give me one twelvemonth, and eat grapes, and ride donkeys, and be very happy? In truth, Grosvenor, I have lived abroad too long to be contented in England: I miss southern luxuries,—the fruits, the wines; I miss the sun in heaven, having been upon a short allowance of sunbeams these last ten days; and if the nervous fluid be the galvanic fluid, and the galvanic fluid the electric fluid, and the electric fluid condensed light, zounds! what an effect must these vile dark rainy clouds have upon a poor nervous fellow, whose brain has been in a state of high illumination for the last fifteen months!
“God bless you! I am going in a few days to meet
Wynn at Liverpool, and then to see
the Welsh lions. . . . . Grosvenor
Bedford, I wish you would write a history, for, take my word for
it, no employment else is one
| Ætat. 27. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 163 |
