Normanton, <1>
May 14th 181[illegible deletion]7.
My Dear Mamma,
Your letter <2> amused me very much; - I think you must mistake in saying that Jane <3> directed an epistle to me in Northamptonshire; for she might as well direct it to Botany Bay. I have been this morning to see the stonepits near Ketton, <4> which belong to Lord Northwick. <5> Do you know a Farm belonging to Ld Exeter, <6> called Murray's Lodge. There is the finest view from it in the County: I am going there some afternoon with my spy-glass - Bye the bye has not Mr F. <7> got a great collection of telescopes somewhere? He had several on board the Revolutionnaire<8> - For my glass here tantalizes me: Last night I observed Jupiter, and saw three of his satellites in this position - [illustration] On a sudden, the two on the right side vanished, & I think were eclipsed, but cannot tell. However I am going to calculate & see. - It has just power enough to shew the satellites - Ask Mr F. if he ever observed their eclipses, in order to find his longitude? I read Milton's <9> Paradise Lost, & Par. Regained <10> lately. The latter is a very good poem tho' one seldom hears it spoken of - What is your opinion of the new Tragedy? <11> You were going to see it. One of the most distressing & melancholy accidents I ever heard of, occurred at Lincoln last week. Two brothers 16 & 11 had cleared out a well, next morning as they went that way, a little bird flew into the well. The youngest boy, went down the well to catch it - When near the bottom he exclaimed "Oh! The bird's dead"; & immediately dropped down himself. His brother went to help him, but met with the same fate - a third person, and then a fourth, and then a fifth, descended the Fatal well, to share the same fate. At length a resolute fellow, after taking the precaution to bandage his mouth & nose, made a fresh attempt, & at the imminent hazard of his life succeeded in bringing them up, one by one. He fainted each time he reached the top - but persisted his attempt - The two boys were quite dead, the rest are dangerously ill. The circumstances of the case greatly aggravate the calamity - These I may perhaps mention in my next. -
May 16th
Yesterday I dined at Mr Barker's of Lyndon. <12> He is a great mechanist - I met there Mr Daunay of Ashwell, <13> Ld Down's <14> brother, do you know him? Has Ld Winchilsea <15> any idea of going abroad this year?
I find by calculation that I was mistaken in supposing that the satellites were eclipsed. I suppose my eye was tired, & could see them no longer. Tell Car. & Hor. <16> that they may see Mercury on the 19th & for some days before & after: in the west after Sunset, about nine o'clock - But if they may not sit up so late, don't give my message.
Yr Affte Son
W. H. F. Talbot
The Lady Elisth Feilding
31 Sackville St.
London
Stamford 86 <17>
Notes:
1. Normanton, Rutlandshire.
2. Letter not located.
3. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796-1874).
4. Ketton, Rutland.
5. John Rushout, 2nd Lord Northwick (1770-1859).
6. Cecil Brownlow, 2nd Marquis of Exeter.
7. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
8. A Seine class frigate, captured from the French in 1794; Feilding was Captain of it in 1803.
9. John Milton (1608-1674), poet.
10. Paradise Regained, a sequel to Paradise Lost, published in 1671.
11. See Doc. No: 00763.
12. A mechanist was one who designed and built precision instruments. Henry had met Samuel Barker (1757-1835) of Lyndon Hall, Rutland. His father, Thomas Barker (1722-1809), was a pioneer in scientific weather observation and his uncle was Rev. Gilbert White (1720-1793), the famous Selborne naturalist.
13. Ashwell, Rutland.
14. Creative spelling of John Christopher Burton Daunay, 5th Viscount Downe (1764-1832); Daunay was the orginal spelling but had become Dawnay by the period of this letter. One brother was a clergyman, so the brother cited here was probably Marmaduke Dawnay, (1772-1851),
15. George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea (1752-1826).
16. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810-1851), WHFT's half-sister.
17. Printed text.