Geneva
4th September 1828
My Dear Mother
I arrived here the 18th August, and was disappointed at not finding a letter <1> from you. I felt no inclination to write any account of my adventures, until I heard from you, and [illegible deletion] your first letter did not reach me until the day before yesterday. I should probably have written a great many letters in the mean time, but I felt too much out of spirits at hearing nothing of you. You should write on your letters “par France <2>” otherwise they go through Germany and are five days longer in coming. The Payne Gallways’ <3> are here: they have a pretty campagne about a mile from the town. I did not find them out for a week, and then it was by accident: since which I have seen a good deal of them. This is the third summer they have spent here & have not yet seen Chamonny; I proposed an excursion there but the General was immovable, the others wished very much to go.– I was obliged to go to Chamonny by myself which was not very amusing but I got some exercise. – The papers say Lord Landsdowne’s <4> to join the D. of Wellington. <5> I suppose there is no truth in it.
Your affte Son
Henry Talbot
Lady Elisabeth Feilding
at Sir C: Lemons, <6> Bart.
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Carclew
Truro
Cornwall
Angleterre
Notes:
1. Apparently Lady Elisabeth’s letter of the 19 August had not arrived. [See Doc. No: 01702].
2. Via France.
3. Sir William Payne Gallwey (1807-1881), 2nd Bart, son of Lt Gen Sir William Payne Gallwey (1759-1831), 1st Bart, and Lady Harriet Payne Gallwey (1784-1845), née Quin.
4. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle. This is probably a reference to the controversial legislation of the Catholic Emancipation Act (passed in April 1829) that allowed Catholics to sit as MPs for the first time since the Elizabethan Act of Settlement (1558–1559). In July 1828 Landsdowne brought the resolution on the Roman catholic question before the House of Lords.
5. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852).
6. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle.