Cambridge <1>
April 8th 1821
My Dear Mr F.
I find a vast number of things to do, on leaving Cambridge. I certainly quit it without much regret, considering the time I have been here. I think of setting off the day after tomorrow, so you may expect me in a few days after my letter. I am sorry you should think my failure owing to not getting up early and working hard. On the contrary I never passed a better examination. <2> If you ask then how Ollivant <3> beat me, I tell you honestly I don’t know. I think I did the best; I thought so partly last year, but I had less reason then. The examiners did not give the grounds of their decision; they never do. The examination has two parts. In construing hard Greek & Latin I certainly believe Ollivant is my superior, but what they gave us this time was very easy, & I did it all right. Here there could have been no essential difference between us; – the other part consists of verses & composition: this must be decided by the taste of the examiners, there can be no rule for it. His style & mine are very different; they prefer his, & if they do so once, they will twenty times, for the examiners are always the same, or nearly so. I prefer my own, as is natural. I don’t quarrel with the examiners, they are very fair & honorable, they decide as they think right; – If I thought Ollivant superior to myself, I would be the first to say so, and I would do all in my power to beat him at the fellowship examination, but as it is, I will never try again, & I have no doubt you will think it best. I have now told you honestly what I think about it; I expected the result, & felt much more indifferent about it, than I should once have done. I have only to add that the examiners thought proper to pay us both a handsome compliment, & that our declamation went off with éclat. <4> –
I like my servant very much, I only wish he spoke better French. I cannot pity the Neapol[itans:]<5> they seem to deserve their fate. The news fro[m] Turkey <6> is strange & shapeless, it appears to me a bad time to go to Constantinople. I don’t think W. <7> is gone yet I told you in my last letter, I had been solacing myself with my Astronomy. There is nothing like having two or three different pursuits for se délasser <8> when anything goes wrong: – The other day I thought I would try if I could see the new planet Vesta: <9> having no instrument but your Telescope & Mayer’s catalogue of the Stars, <10> there was some difficulty: at last I found the spot mentioned in the Ephemeris where the Planet was to have been, when lo! there was nothing to be seen. A day or two after I found out there was a blunder of one a whole degree in the Ephemeris (which was too bad) and having corrected this I looked again on the 5th and saw the Planet in its place. It was much smaller than I expected, being fainter than one of Jupiter’s Satellites. On the 7th I found it had changed its place considerably, which proved it to be the planet, & not an accidental star. I was highly delighted at having found it, as I believe very few Astronomers have seen it except those who have regular Observatories – I should like to shew it you when I am at Paris, but I am afraid it cannot be seen through a common telescope: it is very faint thro’ your large one, tho’ to be sure there are many stars about it much fainter still – My love to All –
Yours ever Affectionately
W. H. F. Talbot –
Capt Feilding R.N.
2 Sackville St
London
17 Rue de Clichy
Paris
Notes:
1. Trinity College, Cambridge.
2. See Doc. No: 00905.
3. Alfred Ollivant (1798–1882), author & Bishop of Llandaff.
4. Style, a bit of a stir.
5. The Austrian army entered and occupied the kingdom of Naples on 23 March 1821, reestablishing King Ferdinard’s absolute government.
6. There were Turkish uprisings in 1764 and 1833, and in 1821 the Greek Orthodox archbishop of Cyprus was hanged on suspicion of sympathizing with the rebels in mainland Greece.
7. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
8. For relaxation.
9. One of the asteroids or minor planets, the first was discovered in 1801.
10. Johann Tobias Mayer (1723–1762), German astronomer who developed lunar tables and published numerous books on astronomy.