24 April
Thanks my dear Henry for yours frm Tarbes of the 12th – which only came today – I conclude that by this Time you are very near Paris – & I hope will have found our letters on the Road – but there is no calculating on the Post in this Country. I have little to say about ourselves more than our last contained – We shall sail tomorrow if the wind is fair & I hope have a good passage – Caroline’s <1> cold is nearly well – Our distance will be so great & your stay in England so short, that I must lose no Time in telling you what I want done there, the principal being that as soon as you have at all fixed what places you intend passing through you would let me know that I may have letters there for you – my idea is that you will leave England about the 20th June & be about 6 weeks on your road, but if you want a letter at Brusselles for instance you must let me know at least 5 weeks before you expect to be there. so you must settle something very soon after you get to Town – to be sure what I shall write will be no great loss if you change your mind as to the Towns you pass through as it will be principally accounts of the children <2>, & as I hope they will be well your missing one or two will be of no consequence – I have recd nothing yet from Menzies but will ask him – The L[illegible] stay here till the end of May – I wrote you a letter to Paris which I hope you will have recd. Do not forget to send me on Richards <3> letter to you with the List of our Things at Paris – Your Mother <4> will have told you what I wrote to her about Nicolle <5> – I certainly think that he is worth waiting for – & I cannot make out that the Ladies can be more that [sic] 6 weeks on their road which would take them to Town about the 10th June – I recommend you not to hurry for in so long an absence a week or two more makes little difference in the feel of separation & a great deal in the comfort of the Traveller.
God bless you
Yr affte
C.F.
You had better continue enquiring for letters Poste Restante ParisHenry Talbot Esqre
Notes:
1. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
2. Caroline and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Richard, a servant.
4. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
5. Nicholas Sisberg, servant. [See Doc. No: 01175].