Burley. <1>
29. August
My dear Henry
You have been moving about so that I have not known how to direct to you & moreover as your mother <2> was frequently writing my<3> letters I thought could be more easily dispensed with - I have been some time meditating to despatch you an epistle, & [illegible deletion] a conversation with Mr Bonney <4> about you has roused my indolence as you see - it was most gratifying to hear all he said about you, & all he repeated as being the opinion of Cambridge men of his acquaintance. I told him that you had felt it really necessary to be idle after the exertion of standing your examination - he thought so also [illegible deletion] - but only hoped it would not last too long, & that as the Lecturers wd be at Camb <5>: by the 29 Sepr he hoped you would return there by the 1st or 2d Octr - he seems to have your interest really at heart, & I think it very unlucky that you could not call on him in your way North - I hardly know what to advise about your trying again for the Pitt scholarship, what do you feel about it yourself what I am really anxious about is that having placed yourself so high in this first examination you should retain the same station at the next, & to do this I am sensible you must [illegible] hard - what Mr Bonney seems to think indispens is that you should employ the next long vacation with some Tutor in the country or abroad with 2 or 3 companions as you had some idea of doing this - I am very sorry there is not any chance of my seeing you again before you go to Camb: but I shall certainly go there to see you in my way to Town. Your mother you will I suppose either meet at Bowood <6> or Town - but pray write to us & tell us your schemes - direct my letters to Sackville St <7> - I go to Sprotborough <8> in a few days & then to Lowther & Scotland - I will write to you again whenever I know where to direct - We have had a Cricket match & got very much beaten by the Oakham people - <9>
Ld Winchilsea has often enquired after you - & I was quite ashamed to hear him say that he had not seen you in Town by which I knew he was aware you had not called on him - he is a person who has always been so very kind to you that you ought out of mere civility if for nothing else to be attentive to him - my old dictum is a very good one & I wish you would always remember it. "La politesse coute peu & rend beaucoup-" <10> You are in so many respects exactly what my fondest hopes could wish - that I cannot bear to be teazing you about the very few in which you hardly meet my ideas of what you should be but I will not let this letter go without one bit of advice - to watch yourself carefully on the score of selfindulgence - you are a little too apt I think to consider too much how any proposal will affect yourself & not enough how other people may be affected by your complying with it - in this world one must give as well as take, & if you like (as every one must) that others should sometimes derange themselves to accomodate you, you must pay the price of occasionally denying yourself to accomodate them - I have said quite enough I am sure to turn your thoughts to the subject & your own good sense will do the rest - God bless you
Yr affte Friend
C.F.
Notes:
1. Stamford.
2. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773-1846), WHFT's mother.
3. Blot in original.
4. Thomas Kaye Bonney (1782-1863), Archdeacon of Leicester.
5. Trinity College, Cambridge.
6. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
7. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
8. Sprotborough Hall, Doncaster.
9. George Finch, the 9th Earl of Winchilsea (1752-1826), was a founding father of English cricket and even had his own cricket patch. This match was palyed on 24 August 1818 - George Finch batted three and Capt Feilding batted four.
10. Courtesy costs little and repays much.