[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Lady Elisabeth - see Doc. No: 01299]
Genoa.
29 October
My dear Henry -
I rather think this of mine will be the first letter you will receive from us, a joint production directed to Paris having probably arrived there after your departure, unless indeed some thing should have detained you on the road. We are all anxious to hear how you got over the Mt Cenis. I cannot tell you how we miss you our 3 months at Varese <1> were so pleasant, & we were so happy altogether, that I shall think of it as of one of the most agreeable sejours of my life - I have not yet been able to find a house, & a great nuisance it is, as it prevents our enjoying any thing - The Euryalus English Frigate <2> came in 2 days since, & while I was on board looking at her with the children <3> Baron de Zach <4> came with the same object. I introduced myself to him & we became great Friends in a short Time - he said he was very much surprized to see me, as he thought I was a man of 60 so I do not know how you had described me - I have not have [sic] had Time to call on him yet - he had with him the astronomer of Sienna [sic], a pupil & coadjutor of Inghirami,<5> who he had assisted in calculating the planetary distances. I like this place very much, it is so busy & cheerful, but we intend to get a house out of the Town - Angioj <6> is very busy for us, but these horrid Floods which kept us locked up at Milan, & the precious delay of a week at Varese in consequence of the uncertainty of Ld Winchilseas <7> plans have lost us the choice of two or 3 houses which might have done suited. I hear that Lord Byron <8> is really in earnest about the Greeks for careful of money as he is he has taken £11,000 with him to spend on them - & by what I hear from Clifford <9> the capt of Euryalus, that is what they are most in want of.
C. F.
W. H. F. Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville Street
London
Inghilterra
Notes:
1. They stayed at the Villa Serbelloni, in Varese, 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. WHFT showed it to his new wife in October 1833, just as he was conceiving of the idea of photography and his sister Horatia made a point of visiting it in 1847.
2. The British frigate 'Euryalus'; it had played an important role in the days preceding the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805.
3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810-1851), WHFT's half-sister.
4. Franz Xaver, Baron von Zach (1754-1832), Hungarian astronomer.
5. ie, assistant to Giovanni Inghirami (1779-1851), Italian astronomer and religious figure.
6. See Doc. No: 01116.
7. George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea (1752-1826).
8. George Gordon Byron (1788-1824), poet and fervent supporter of Greek independence.
9. Captain Clifford. [See Doc. No: 01299].