Paris
24 Jany
My Dear Henry
We are rejoiced to hear you are really coming the beginning of Feby – you will see Mr F. <1> in London who will tell you all our news.
Baptiste <2> has sold himself for three years to Madame de Segur, who advanced 70 Napoleons to pay for his substitute. Horatia <3> is much better than when I wrote last & Caroline’s <4> birthday was celebrated in the domestic circle & I believe she passed a happy day tho’ she would have preferred giving a dance, & she thinks with pleasure of Rome where for the last time her birthday was so celebrated. She appears to conclude that every step northward is so far a retreat from gaiety. the sombre weather add to this conviction, the sun seldom shines & all the French call it English weather, while Charlotte <5> writes such accounts of Jonquils Orange flowers, Tuberoses &c There are a good many balls just now going on, but the Carnival will be soon over. We shall be in London I think the end of April if the house is not let, Mr F. will tell you all our pros & cons about it
God bless you
We are much shocked at the death of Lord Thanet <6> having seen him well & gay so lately, well he was not but appeared so
W. H. F. Talbot Esqr
31. Sackville Street
Notes:
1. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
2. A manservant employed from 1823 to 1824 by Capt Feilding.
3. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
4. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
5. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin.
6. Sir Sackville Tufton, 9th Earl of Thanet (1769–1825), who died from cholera in Paris.