Nice
2d January
My Dear Henry
Mille grazie <1> for the very amusing pasquinade <2> you sent us & for the part dear Constance <3> took the trouble of copying, which tho’ we had an abridgement of the same a few days before in Galignani. <4> I was not the less obliged for, as the intention was si aimable. <5> Yesterday just as we were sitting down to dinner with a large company pour fêter la nouvelle année <6> on Estorforth arrived from Cannes With a letter to Mr. F. <7> from Lord Brougham <8> who had not heard of the cordon de Santé <9> when he left Paris & was most indignant at learning that he was not suffered to enter Les Etats Sardis <10> without a Quarantine of 31 days performed at Ville Franche, which he must reach either by Sea attended by officers from the Uffizio di Sanita <11> or Surrounded by a guard if he goes by land, to prevent speech or contact with the inhabitants. The Man Lord B. procured at Cannes to bring his express is a desperate smuggler (nobody else would undertake it) and was twice shot at on crossing the Var. Mr. F. Immediately went to all the authorities & the governor & President were willing to shorten the Quarantine, but the old Queen Marie Christine de Naples <12> who is dreadfully afraid of the cholera would not consent. This will prevent our having any accession of society, and the loss of Lord Brougham’s is most vexative, for even his enemies allow his powers of conversation & Lord V. <13> regrets him as much as we do. An resto we are not dull at all, and I fear Horatia <14> will find England flat after the excitement of this sort of life as every evening brings its amusement but the hours are so early that she is always in bed & asleep by one o’clock think of that! Our soirées begin at 8 which is a giant agrément <15> I am delighted to see her dance again & enjoy herself without danger of fatigue & without keeping the absurdly late hour of London. She is at this moment [dres?] her costume for a Fancy Ball I am to give next Thursday, & what is among not the least agreeable circumstances is that all this amusement costs less than leading the most hugger mugger life in England. Mr. F was glad to hear of Mr. Kindrich that poor Betty V. <16> was not forgot at Xmas. a Letter he received (not from Wiltshire) says you are thought firm. – I suppose that must be because you do not attend County meetings &c. &c.– I do not think your Constituents deserve much at your hands if they have sold themselves to Boldero <17> & Co. nor should I care much what they say or think but I should be vexed if you were thought so by the Southerners of the County, & I often regret so few of them Know you from a certain repugnance you have always had to meetings where you would naturally have become acquainted, & in that I doubt not has originated the accusation of finess &c.
How very kind of Mrs Mundy <18> to invite Amandier. <19> Has Kit <20> been in Ireland? I have not heard from him since I came abroad.
H.F. Talbot Esq.
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wiltshire
Angleterre
Notes:
1. A thousand thanks.
2. A composition that imitates somebody’s style in a humorous way.
3. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
4. Galignani’s Messenger, a newspaper that had a wide circulation among English residents on the Continent.
5. So kind.
6. To celebrate the New Year.
7. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
8. Henry Peter Brougham, Baron of Brougham & Voux (1778–1868), Lord Chancellor.
9. Quarantine zone.
10. The Sardinian countries.
11. Health Office.
12. Queen Maria Christina of Naples (d. 1849).
13. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
14. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
15. Pleasure.
16. Elizabeth Vickery ‘Betty’, WHFT’s governess, who died in 1835. WHFT paid to have a gravestone placed at Cutcombe, Somerset, inscribed: 'Erected to the Memory of Elizbth Vickery his kind & faithful nurse by Henry Fox Talbot of Lacock Abbey in the country of Wilts Esqre'; the stone's inscription is still readable - See Doc. No: 03205.
17. Col Henry George Boldero (d. 1873), Conservative politician; sat for Chippenham in 1831 and from 1835 until his resignation in 1859.
18. Sarah Leaper Mundy, née Newton (d. 1836), WHFT’s mother in law.
19. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
20. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.