Saturday May 17, 1817 <1>
My Dear Henry
I have given Car & Hor <2> leave to sit up till nine this Evening to look for Mercury, but I am afraid it will be a needle in a bottle of hay to them. Mr F's <3> Telescopes are at Watkins's <4> - to be taken care of - which do you wish for? The Night I intended to go to the Apostate there was no box to be had, it was so excessively full, & now I suppose I shall never see it, for Miss O'Neil broke a blood vessel last night after acting in it, & she is given over, Baillie told her a week ago this would happen if she persisted in acting.,<5> However while there's Life there's Hope, but Dr You must hear Lord Erskine <6> sport Paradise regained, <7> he is entousiaste <8> about it. Tell me the Sequel of your melancholy Well story. I have met Mr Daunay <9> at Burley. <10> Lord Winchilsea <11> & Gression[?] are going for a short time to Brussels to see the Fitz Geralds. <12> Fulham Fulham is 4 miles from Town. I am going tomorrow with Lord & Lady Charlemont <13> & see Xtopher <14> & Lord Caulfeild <15> who is just placed there. Mr F. is at Eden Farm, <16> he went to have a Pigeon match with Bob Eden <17> &c Bob is just going to Cambridge
I wish you were going to Oxford
I never was at Murray's Lodge <18> You have never described your Garden nor room to me - I wish you would, & how your bookshelves are placed. Do you ride generally by yourself?
I hope you keep up your French & Italian. Tell me more what you do. & what you are reading with Mr Bonny. <19> Is it not Demosthenes? & perhaps Æschylus Horatia has been ill. Jane <20> is in Town & Ly I - Julia <21> is come out
London May seventeen 1817 Auckland <22>
Hy- Fox - Talbot Esqre
Normanton
Stamford -
Notes:
1. Written in another hand.
2. 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.
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
4. Probably Francis Watkins, of Watkins & Hill, instrument makers, London.
5. Apostate, a play by the Irish writer Richard Lalor Shiel (1791-1851), performed at Covent Garden in 1817. Miss O'Neill, an Irish actress remained seriously ill until she returned to the stage that autumn. Her physician, Dr. Matthew Baillie (1761-1823) had been a physician to George III and his children.
6. Probably Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron (1750-1823). [See Doc. No: 01681].
7. Paradise Regained, a sequel to Paradise Lost, published in 1671. [See Doc. No: 00764].
8. She means 'enthusiastic'.
9. See Doc. No: 00764.
10. Burley, Stamford.
11. George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea (1752-1826).
12. Lord Robert Stephen Fitzgerald (1765-1833), diplomat, and his wife Lady Sophia Charlotte Fitzgerald, née Feilding (d. 1834).
13. Francis William Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont (1775-1863); and his wife, Lady Anne Charlemont, née Bermingham (1780-1876).
14. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT's Welsh cousin.
15. James William Caulfield, Viscount Charlemont (1803-1827). [See Doc. No: 00670].
16. Eden Farm, Beckingham, Kent, the home of Lord Auckland.
17. Robert John Eden, 3rd Baron Auckland (1799-1870).
18. The farm of Brownlow Cecil (1795-1867), 2nd Marquis of Exeter. [See Doc. No: 00764].
19. Misspelling of Thomas Kaye Bonney (1782-1863), Archdeacon of Leicester.
20. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796-1874).
21. Julia Strangways, daughter of Juliana Maria Strangways, née Digby (d. 1842).
22. George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784-1849), Governor General of India.