Castleford <1>
1st December 1815.
My Dear Mamma,
I wrote a pretty long letter to Mr Feilding <2> a week or two ago, which I am afraid he did not receive; since you seem so much surprized at my not having written. The winter is setting in: Snow, Rain, Fog, Mist; & hoar Frost, contend for the preeminence. I have bought a pair of skaits, but the Ice is not at present thick enough. - We bought a Poney of the Jailer, about a week ago, for sixteen pounds, but the man would not part with the saddle, nor could we get one ready made, or second hand at Pomfret; <3> so we were obliged to order one. I have had several rides, & like him very much, as he is very quick, & very quiet, & very handsome, & bay coloured. Stewart keeps a horse here, & goes out hunting. I have told you, I believe, Mr Hale's pursuits; I cannot say I like him much; he is so exceedingly Silly. - I was surprized to hear of your going to Town, for I thought you intended wintering at Melbury. <4> I enclose a letter to Caroline, not knowing whether to direct to her at Sackville St <5> or Bowood, <6> or Melbury, or Deans Leaze. <7> I hope it will amuse her. Pray tell me where Betty <8> is at present, that I may write to her. - I do not think she knows I have left Harrow. - I have heard no particulars of Christopher's <9> alarm, besides what you told me. - If you have a mind to send me a present, suitable to the occasion, send me a Peacock's Repository <10> for the Ensuing year, unbound, to go into my Pocketbook, and a microscope; such as I had lately, if you recollect, but lost it at Penrice - <11> A tortoiseshell kind of case, enclosing three lenses, with a hold in it, to enable you to look through all three at once: of as high magnifying power, as may be: it will not cost above a dollar. I hope you understand me- I am reading at present by myself "Anacharsis's Travels" <12> in English- & "Tytlers Elements of General History" <13> and the "Morning Chronicle" <14> - I say no more.
I be's yr Affte Son
W. H. F. Talbot
The Lady Elisabeth Feilding
31 Sackville St
London
Notes:
1. Castleford, Yorkshire, 10 mi SE of Leeds, where WHFT went to school from 1815-1816.
2. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
3. Pomfret, Yorkshire, today more commonly known as Pontefract.
4. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
5. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
6. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
7. Deans Leaze, Dorset.
8. Elizabeth Vickery ‘Betty’, WHFT’s governess. When she died in autumn 1835, WHFT paid to have a gravestone placed at Cutcombe, Somerset, inscribed: 'Erected to the Memory of Elizbth Vickery his kind & faithful nurse by Henry Fox Talbot of Lacock Abbey in the country of Wilts Esqre'; the stone's inscription is still readable - See Doc. No: 03205.
9. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT's Welsh cousin.
10. Peacock's Polite Repository, almanack.
11. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
12. Probably a reference to Jean-Jacques Barthelemy's, Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce, dans le milieu du quatrième siècle (Paris: De Bure l'aîné, 1791). It was translated into English by William Beaumont (1794, second edition).
13. Alexander Fraser Tytler Woodhouselee, Elements of general history, ancient and modern, first published in ca.1785.
14. Morning Chronicle, newspaper, founded in London by William Woodfall in 1769.