16 June.
S. St <1>
My dear Henry,
I have subscribed for you to the Zoological Society - £5ּ0ּ0 - & you are to pay £2 a year - I hope you approve - There is a very pretty part of the Regents Park appropriated, & I dare say in time it will do very well - I am anxious to hear something of your plans: Poor Lemon <2> talks of going abroad & is in want of some one to travel with. You would suit him very well I think having the same pursuits & tastes - he is totally indifferent as to where he goes I believe - but mentioned Spain - It is impossible not to wish to do every thing in ones power for him now - & if you ever have I should urge your proposing to go with him - but with the uncertainty about his Plans & yours & the distance I fear we shall not be able to manage it - He is just now in Cornwall. Your Mother <3> gets better - but she will be a long time before she returns to her usual spirits - it has been a sad year for us all. Ld Winchilsea <4> is certainly better for the warm weather - & will therefore last longer than I expected, how long it is impossible to say - what we are to do I cannot tell you. if he remains in Town we must fix ourselves somewhere new if he should be able to go to the Sea we must do the same - if it ends soon we should go over the water on our way to Paris - where would depend on the Time of the Event occuring [sic] & your plans This seems to be exactly what I said in my last which I have just recollected. Ld Lansdowne <5> is brother of his Earl - we went to Richmond yesterday to dine with them en famille. <6> it is a most beautiful place being the House on the Hill & a garden down to the river edge communicating under the road, with the upper one - it was a fine day & the Girls were enchanted - The elections go on pretty favorably on the whole - Mr Grossett <7> has run away from Chippenham <8> - frightened by a candidate arriving followed by 3 waggons full of wool which he gave away to the workmen saying he would buy it back as soon as it had become Cloth - Ld L. had a panic about Calne <9> but it was settled. Fazakerly <10> is come in for Lincoln at the Head of the Poll, & I hope is fixed there - I have recd a very complimentary & I dare say a very true account of the depth of your Hieroglyphic lore from San Quintino <11> - he seems quite charmed with you.
Poor Harriet Payson's pretty daughter Caroline is an almost hopeless state, & the eldest has very near died of an attack of putrid sore Throat - Lady Corks daughter <12> is dead of small Pox after vaccination by Jenner & several others have died also - quantities have had it so pray do not willfully go in the way of small Pox.
G & L Almighty bless you
C. F
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. Sir Charles Lemon (1784-1868), politician & scientist; WHFT's uncle.
3. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773-1846), WHFT's mother.
4. George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea (1752-1826).
5. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863), MP, WHFT's uncle.
6. Together as family.
7. John Rock Grosett (1783-1866), MP; Jamaican Parliament; occupant of Lacock Abbey until summer 1827.
8. Chippenham, Wiltshire: largest town near Lacock, 3 miles N.
9. Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock.
10. John Nicholas Fazakerley (1787-1852), MP.
11. Giulio dei Conti Cordero Di San Quintino (1778-1857), Italian Egyptologist.
12. Probably Lady Catherine Cork, née Houth.