Cadenabbia,<1> on the lake of Como
4th October 1833
My Dear Mr F.
We left this inn on the 27th Septr after a week’ séjour,<2> and went to Varese<3> to enquire for Caroline.<4> For we had heard nothing of her for more than a month, & we thought it so late in the season that if she were not yet come, she was probably not coming. On our arrival at Varese we were delighted to find her just arrived and very flourishing, as well as Bimbo<5> who seems an excellent traveller – Valletort<6> seems but middling, neither ill nor yet very well. We took up our abode all together in the Albergo della Stella, which is but a very médiocre inn, and stayed there four or five days<7> The two first days it rained incessantly day and night, which did not so much signify we had a great deal to say to each other.
On the 1st October the weather grew fine, & we visited Villa Serbelloni<8> which we found in the joint occupation of several Milanese families. Caroline recognised the red hangings of Horatia’s<9> bed, & the prints & engravings in my mother’s <10> room, unchanged – Nothing seems to have been done to the villa either inside or outside since our time. The gardener was delighted on being called by Caroline by his name, which I think was Telamone – I measured as nearly as I could the length of the whole front of the villa, which I found 350 feet, but the dining room is not so long as I thought: it is only 90 feet long – I thought you would like to have these measurements.
On the 2d October we went up the Sagro Monte and Caroline & I climbed the summit of the Tre Croce, which the rest had not sufficient energy to attempt. Caroline was in great spirits & as nimble as a deer, so we arrived at the summit without difficulty. The weather was very clear in the direction of Switzerland, so that we had a good view of the Finster Arrhorn and I was able to determine his exact shape as seen over the top of some lower mountains – [illustration] The weather was hazy towards the south, so that Milan cathedral was visible with difficulty, & the Superga not at all. En revanche <11> we saw the lake of Como which I had forgotten could be seen from thence.
We found a souvenir vague <12> remaining of us at Varese: our guide to the Sagro Monte recollected us, & enquired particularly for Giovanni– <13> We returned here yesterday by the Val Assina & have taken apartments for Caroline whom we expect tomorrow morning.
Adieu, direct to Nice.
Yours affly
Henry Talbot
Captain Feilding R.N.
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Inghilterra
Notes:
1. On the Western bank of Lake Como in Northern Italy.
2. Stay.
3. Capital of Varese Provence, Lombardy region, northern Italy.
4. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
5. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
6. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
7. Perhaps it had declined since 1820 when the Grand Duke of Russia enjoyed both its food and its wine cellar: Conte Dandelo, Sulle cause dell'avvilimento delle nostre granaglie e sulle industrie agrarie; Riparatrici de Danni che ne derivano (Milan: Giambatista Sonzagno, 1820), p. 249. Or perhaps the latter was of less interest to the normally abstemious WHFT.
8. In 1823, Lady Elisabeth and Charles Feilding enjoyed a three month stay at the Villa Serbelloni where they were joined by WHFT. The Villa Serbelloni is in Varese, in Lombardy, Italy, north of Milan and near Lake Como, and is known today as Palazzo Estense. Built as a baroque palace by Francesco III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Governor of the Duchy of Milan (1698-1780), it went by descent from his third wife by morganatic marriage, Renata Teresa d’Harrach, Princess Melzi, to Rosina Zinzendorf, Countess Serbelloni. The Countess allowed wealthy paying guests to stay there. Although this was their only stay in the Villa, the house remained strong in their family memory. At the time of this letter, WHFT was just conceiving of the idea of photography. His sister Horatia made a point of visiting the Villa in 1847.
9. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
10. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
11. On the other hand.
12. A distant memory.
13. Giovanni Percij, London servant to the Feildings and Talbots.