610. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 3 October 1801*
Saturday. Oct. 3. 1801. KeswickMy dear Wynn
Yesterday I reached this place by dinner-hour. from hence, if Rickmans next should summon me, as doubtless it will, I shall post to Whitehaven & embark in a Collier. the passage may be three days, hardly more. to be sick three days in a Colliers cabin is bad – but I know the value of comparison & shall console myself by remembering that Jonah1 spent three days in a worse place.
The Liverpool complaint is very generally diffused. here it has been bad – but not fatal. at Bolton very fatal – at Bristol it is raging. the disorder is a flux – frequently bloody. We should have been alarmed had we known that when Elmsley was affected.
Skiddaw has used me ill for preferring Old Snowdon. the rascal as he saw me spit in my face & made water upon me.
yrs truly R Southey.