2672. Robert Southey to William Wordsworth [fragment], 1 December 1815*
Leicester. Friday Dec 1. 1815My dear Wordsworth
Thus far into the bowels of the land – have we advanced on our return, & I write with this abominable pen (which I cannot mend by candle light) to say that if you can lodge us on Tuesday night, I shall hope & endeavour to reach Rydale. If your house is full, leave a note for me at Wilcoxs.1 We shall halt tomorrow with Mrs White at Nottingham,2 & start again early on Sunday morning by way of Halifax.
My journey (tho with much anxiety on Edith May’s account)3 has been very interesting & well repaid all trouble & expence. The last day which I past in town I met Mina4 at Goodens [remainer of MS missing]
Notes
MS: Wordsworth Trust, WL MS A Southey. AL; 1p.
Unpublished. Back
1. William Wilcock (dates unknown) was the landlord of the Salutation Inn, Ambleside and part-owner of the Good Intent and Volunteer stagecoaches that served the Kendal-Whitehaven and Penrith-Keswick routes. Back
2. Mary White, née Neville (1755–1833), mother of Southey’s friends Neville and James White, and of Henry Kirke White. Back
3. Edith May Southey had been seriously ill during the Southeys’ recent tour of France and Belgium; see Southey to John May, 20 October 1815, Letter 2662. Back
4. Either Francisco Javier de Mina (1789–1817), guerrilla leader in Navarre 1808–1810; or his uncle, General Espoz de Mina (1781–1836). Both had fled Spain after a failed rising in Pamplona on 25–26 September 1814. Back