Sackville Street <1>
Saturday 4th Nov
My Dear Henry
I am surprised we have not heard from you, as Mr F. <2> wrote from Sittingbourne Wednesday night to let you know of our arrival, & hairbreadth scapes on the Sea, We had a most dreadful passage of fifteen hours, which I may say comprised every désagrément <3> except that we had the Packet to ourselves, we were out all Night & had a narrow escape of being driven to the North Sea without provisions & indeed too sick to think much about that part of our misadventure. I am not yet recovered being so bruised with the tossing of the Ship & so rheumatic with the quantity of Salt water with which I was trempée. <4> I find all the world agog about the Queen <5> The House of Lords is still debating If any Peer brings any news before the bell goes I will add it. Let me know what day you will be here that your room may be ready & comfortable. I never was so struck with the dinginess & dirt of London as this time, the<6> climate is not so very bad if it was not so offuscated [sic] with smoke & tous les fourneaux & les fabriques de la Cité. <7> I am writing in the dark & can’t see what I say. Lady Sheffield <8> has just been here & desires me to say she is affronted with you for not dining with her I don’t know when
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Trinity College
Cambridge
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
3. Unpleasant occurence.
4. Wet, soaked.
5. Caroline of Brunswick, consort of George IV of England (1768–1821). She had recently returned to England to claim her rights as queen after the accession of her estranged husband as George IV. A Bill to deprive her of her title and to dissolve her marriage was on its way through Parliament. The Bill was eventually dropped. [See Doc. No: 00891].
6. Text torn away under seal.
7. All the furnace and the factories of the city.
8. Sophia Charlotte, née Digby, Lady Sheffield, sister of Julia Brigida Sheffield (née Newbolt).