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Document number: 3254
Date: 20 Apr 1836
Postmark: 1836
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: FEILDING Charles
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 20th February 2012

Turin
April 10

My dear Henry –

I was much shocked at the intelligence your Letter contained, the calamity being so unexpected must have made the blow more severe for poor Constance <1> to bear; give her my kindest love & say how much I felt for her – you see by the date that we are at last under wiegh [sic], but when we shall arrive at our Anchorage in Sackville St <2> is more than I can venture to prognosticate – at the moment owing to the extraordinary weather we have had, & have, the Mt Cenis is almost impassable, & we wait for a few days of clear dry weather before we start – we were detained some time at Nice from the same cause. I would willingly have taken the shortest road, by France, but your mother <3> wished so much to come this way that I gave in – We find here M Boyl & de Candia – <4> & Sir Augustus Forster who is as kind as possible – I dine with him today to meet Plana <5> & the savans of Turin to whom I shall listen with great respect. – had [sic] you so exalted an Idea of the gullibility of the existing generation as to have supposed d’avance <6> that such a mystification as les decouvertes dans la Lune <7> should have succeeded as it has all over the continent, being translated into all languages – I think it to the credit of Galignani <8> that he never mentioned the subject – here Plana was obliged to put in the paper a translation of a letter he had lately recd from Herschell <9> [sic] saying, of course, nothing about the discoveries, by way of a negative contradiction – Your mother expected to find a letter here from you, & I hope to be more fortunate at Chambery. – I wish we were there – it will be a troublesome Job getting over – the sun has again appeared, & we are going to the Gallery –

God bless you
C. F.

I saw M. de Sala [illegible] yesterday he is at the head of the topographical department & he tells me they are making a beautiful map of the Terra firma dominions of the King of Sardinia <10> – the first sheet is to appear soon & he has promised me an exemplaire <11>

W. H. F. Talbot Eqre [sic]
Angleterre
31 Sackville St
London


Notes:

1. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.

2. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.

3. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.

4. Marquis Boyl. [See Doc. No: 03115]. For de Candia see Doc. No: 03443.

5. Giovanni Plana (1781–1864), professor of astronomy at Turin.

6. Beforehand.

7. The discoveries on the Moon. Articles had appeared in the New York Sun in August 1835 alleging that Sir J Herschel at the Cape had seen evidence of life on the Moon; the story then circulated in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

8. Giovanni Antonio Galignani (1757–1821). With his English wife Anne Parsons, he set up an English bookshop and circulating library in Paris ca.1799, and in 1814 founded a newspaper, Galignani’s Messenger, which had a wide circulation among English residents on the Continent.

9. Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792–1871), astronomer & scientist.

10. Charles Albert, King of Sardinia–Piedmont (1831–1849).

11. Copy.

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