[The presumed wrapper for this letter, postmarked 6 Dec 1815 from London, is in a private collection:]
Hy Fox Talbot Esqr
Revd Mr Barnes
Castleford
Ferrybridge
____________
Sackville Street <1>
5th Decr 1815 <2>
My dearest Henry
I have such a mind to make you a present, that I should have sallied forth to buy your Lenses &c &c the moment I read your Letter, only that it poured & I must have gone on footback as I have not got a Carriage now. Kit <3> arrived from Harrow <4> this Evening & is to depart at six in the morning to Penrice <5> with little William Payne Galway, <6> who can’t bear the thoughts of spending his holidays at Penrice, he is so shy. His Father & Mother <7> you know are in the West Indies. What are Mr Barnes’s <8> Politics? Have the others any? Caroline <9> was delighted with your Letter, which will be preserved amongst her archives.
You don’t tell me if you are happy, which I want to know above all things. Do you get fonder of History at your age I was just beginning to take real Pleasure in it. I repent I did not teach you more chronology when you were little, I think it would have been of use to you ever after.
I must tell you a very good derivation of Horatia’s <10> She told me she thought hyver must come from Shiver. Mr F. <11> is at Bowood. <12>
Ever affly yrs
E F
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. Written in another hand.
3. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
4. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811–1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859.
5. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
6. Sir William Payne Gallwey (1807-1881), 2nd Bart.
7. Lt Gen Sir William Payne Gallwey (1759-1831), 1st Bart, and Lady Harriet Payne Gallwey (1784-1845), née Quin.
8. Rev Theophilus Barnes (1774 –1855), of Castleford.
9. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
10. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
11. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
12. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.