Rossie Priory <1>
2d November
My Dear Henry
I hope you have beguiled the time with going to Sir Henry Steuarts <2> We certainly leave this tomorrow, & if you got this in time you might as well meet us at Fordell Admiral Durhams <3> where we intend being by dinner time & if so pray bring all our letters, of which there must be an immense accumulation, for they have been directed there for ages, and Mr F. <4> thinks there must be some there that signify. On Thursday we go to Hopetoun House <5> for a day or two & then to Edinburgh. We have had a very pleasant visit here, excellent Chasse & bonne Chere, <6> being good pictures, Fine Antique Mosaic, & merry people Que faut – ill de plus, pour bien jouir de la vie? <7> It is a charming house [illegible deletion] with all its perfections inside & out, I would not live at this dreadful distance from the civilized world, for any consideration. They seemed enchanted to have us again at Scone, & I was still more sorry to leave them than the first time, we had jumbled so well together.
Caroline <8> has copied a picture of Velazquez <9> & a ruined tavern besides all the billiards & waltzing & talking & music – So no more at present
Yours
If you do not come you may direct to me at Admiral Durham’s Fordell, Inverkeithing
Inchture November Two 1829 Hastings
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Post office
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Seat of the Kinnaird family, in the Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire, erected from 1807. Home of George William Fox Kinnaird, 9th Baron Kinnaird, 1st Baron Kinnaird of Rossie (1807-1878); a scientist and land reformer.
2. Sir Henry Steuart (1759–1836).
3. Admiral Philip Charles Durham, RN (1763–1845).
4. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
5. Hopetoun House, the family seat of the Earls of Hopetoun, Marquesses of Linlithgow.
6. Shooting and good living.
7. What more do we need to enjoy life?
8. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
9. Diego Rodríguez de Silva Velázquez (1599–1660), the most important Spanish painter of the 17th century.