Brighton
29th October
My Dearest Henry
Your letter short as it was, gave me great pleasure, & knowing you have not much time I dont insist upon their being long but I do upon their being frequent. There is a compromise for you. Pray tell me how you got over the Druids, & what has occurred since in your academic [Bowers?] By a letter from Jane <1> dated from some place with an ostrogothic name, I find she had tried her possible to make you stay on there, – I hope you will be rewarded for your resolution by a crown of Laurel. Horatia <2> is much better for this air, But I cannot say I experience any of its salubrious effects, I am still very unwell with a nervous pain in my head for which both heat & cold are equally bad, so that I can neither go out nor sit by the fire & am stretched on the horns of a dilemma. You should make your factotum do the Coffee every Night till its right, that’s the only way to teach them. Mr F. <3> is at Edinburgh & very much pleased with its singular situation. He says its very well worth while going out of one’s way to see it, its so unlike anything else. He means to pay you a visit in his way South. There is a French shop here which is very entertaining, among other things they sell Penknives with hollow handles & in the inside is a whole length small figure of Napole[on]<4> Some of them bronze, some silver gilt [text missing] & various other devices I saw they had not forgotten him tho’ they are afraid of showing it. There are snuff boxes with his Profile carved on them, they are made of a wood found Under ground near Ulm & only the roots are found, the Tree not known. Adio riamatemi e ricordativy di me <5>
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Trinity College
Cambridge
Notes:
1. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
2. 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. Text torn away under seal.
5. Goodbye, love me and remember me.