Penrice Castle, <1>
Aug. 25th 1815.
My Dear Mamma,
We celebrated Horatia’s <2> Birthday with a Grand Baking, in which, as usual, enormous quantities of Flour, Eggs, Butter, Sugar, Currants, Cream, Milk &c. &c. were consumed, to the no small satisfaction of a numerous & fashionable party. Charlotte <3> & I, joined partnership, & produced a quantity of elegant Rout Drop Cakes, which were on all sides allowed to be excellent. Their form was tasty & picturesque, the façade of each was a rude but striking congeries of Rocks, & loose Masses of Stone irregularly piled on high: the tout ensemble was allowed by the most perfect connoisseurs to be majestic & sublime. The cook however, being too narrow minded to comprehend their noble disdain of a mathematical form, sought to reduce them to perfect symmetry, by flattening them into little pancakes!!! – Ignoble Change!
Last Thursday week Sir C. C. Aunt Mary, Mary, Jane, Kit <4> & myself went to Mr Llewellyn’s <5> at Penllergare <6>. – We found there Mr & Mrs Llewellyn, Mr Jones, Fanny Collins, <7> & Mr E. Hawkins <8> with his wife. He (Mr H) is one of the pleasantest men I ever met with, & I hope I shall see him again. – She also is a very pleasant & amiable Lady. Do you know them? – In the Evg they played at Speculation: in which I speculated with various success. Next day, Mary, Jane, & myself took a walk through the woods before breakfast, which are very pleasant: after breakfast it rained heavily the whole day, so we were lucky in having had our walk. We consoled ourselves indoors with looking over Mrs Llewellyn’s collections, of Minerals, Shells, Casts, Seals, Ferns, Mosses, Seaweeds, Confervæ, &c. &c. till dinnertime. They are very numerous & well arranged, & exceedingly neat. – Next day we returned to Swansea, saw the Pottery, (which I need not describe to you who have seen it so often) dined at Mr Dillwyn’s, <9> & returned to Penrice. Yesterday, Jane & the little ones went to Oxwich Point in the socialet<10>Hill, I struck into the Wood on the left, hoping to find a short cut to the Summit, but I was mistaken, for all the paths I tried led to nothing, or lost themselves in a wood of Ferns six and seven feet high, & proportionably thick & unyielding – So I returned to the vulgar path, & walked to the end of Oxwich point in the common way. On my arrival there I could not find them, so I walked round the point to the left, & then round it to the right, in quest of them but all in vain, so after hunting for them about an hour & half, I was necessitated to walk back again, which was by no means my intention at setting out; I did not come home till Dinner was nearly over. I suppose I walked at least seven miles. Ask Mr Feilding. <11> Among the Heath I found, growing by itself, the tallest Mushroom I ever saw. The stalk was twelve inches high, & only half an inch thick, with a large bulb at the base. [illustration] I have drawn it for you in miniature. It’s [sic] name is Agaricus procerus, i.e. Tall Agaric. I also found its counterpart, No. II. with a stalk 2 inches high, 1¼ thick!!!. I believe this is, Agaricus Elephantinus, but am not sure. – [illustration] Thus Ends my diary. – I received the Gun & watch quite safe, on Wednesday Evening, but did not unpack them till Yesterday; I am very much pleased with them both, particularly the engraving on the Watch. After some consideration, I succeeded in putting the gun together, & then took it to pieces again: & this morning I have put it together again to shew Kit. I could not make a [text missing] <12> of the Patent Shotbelt, nor [illegible] it anyway; but this morning I discovered it was broke, & that before it was packed up, for I could not find the piece anywhere. – The little steel projection, which you squeeze, to draw out the Charger, is broken off, near the bottom, & so I can’t draw out the Charger. Ask Mr F. what is to be done. – Pray send me some More Money, for I don’t like to spend what I have, till I have more to replace it, at this distance. I want to buy, new Hat, new Shoes, Waistcoats, Braces & Garters. And to pay for Washing, & Marking, &c. &c. With a long list of etcetera’s which I have forgot at present. So pray send me some. The laws which were in being last Year, respecting the internal establishments of Penrice, continue in force. We rise before 8. breakfast at 9. Nunch at 1. Dine at 5. Tea at 9. and go to bed whenever we please. – Give my love to Mr Feilding & my sisters, & inform me of your proceedings.
I can no more. –
Yr Affte Son.
W. H. F. Talbot.
Lady Elisabeth Feilding
31 Sackville St
London
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin.
4. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer; Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt; Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin; Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874); and Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
5. Colonel John Llewelyn.
6. Penllergaer, Glamorgan, 5 mi E of Loughor: home of the Llewelyn family.
7. Probably Fanny Collins, the daughter of Mr Collins. [See Doc. No: 00593].
8. Probably Edward Hawkins (1780–1867), numismatist & archaelologist.
9. Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778–1855), Welsh botanist & MP.
10. A very light carriage, drawn by one horse but still capable of carrying four to six passengers.
11. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
12. Text torn away under seal.