Naples,
Tuesday March 11. 1823
You will very likely have heard of the terrible earthquake at Palermo on the morning of the 5th One house fell down & killed all the inhabitants and they say every house in the city is more or less cracked. I hear about 25 people were killed in all. Lord & Lady Compton <1> are safe. They only arrived one or two days before. It is reported that Catania is utterly destroyed, but I don’t believe this rests upon any authority. Jane <2> will stay here 3 weeks longer. – I wish I knew your plans I wrote last Tuesday three letters to Palazzo Ceva: and last Friday one, and I received in return nothing on Thursday and nothing on Sunday. I am going today an excursion to Castellamare &c – The Spring seems fairly begun at last. We need not complain of the climate – I will write you word some day what weather they had at Geneva & you will see that we were not quite so badly off. –
Your affte Son
W.H.F. Talbot
Miladi
Miladi Feilding
Palazzo Ceva
Roma
Notes:
1. Probably Lord Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton (1790–1851), and his wife Margaret Clephane.
2. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).