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Result number 141 of 997:   < Back     Back to results list   Next >  

Document number: 687
Date: 25 Mar 1816
Postmark: 25 Mar 1816
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: FEILDING Elisabeth Theresa, née Fox Strangways
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA16-10
Last updated: 19th February 2012

Sackville Str <1>
March 25th

My Dear Henry

The time of your Holidays is still in the book of Fate, as soon as it is determined I will let you know.

The Penriceans <2> arrived the day before yesterday, at the same hour in Berkeley Square.

Poor Van alias old Nick <3> is at his wits end for Taxes, <4> Mr Croker <5> has asigned his additional Salary & Opposition are amazingly triumphant at all they have performed these last ten days.

It is said the Prince Regent’s disorder <6> is turning into a Dropsy which is a very common finale for hard Drinkers as he has been. The Royal Wedding <7> is at present fixed for the 5th April. Caroline & Horatia <8> have already but too much taste for Horticulture, as they are doomed to live between walls, it is an inconvenient taste, however I have so far gratified it as to buy them a pot of Crocusses & another of Hyacinths which are near nothing & fading in their window. This [illegible] <9> to Car to compose a French Fable which she has entitled Le Jacinthe & le Safran, & The Matters or dialogue between them in which the Crocus boasts of its brilliant colours but the Hyacinth thinks it has more merit in smelling sweet

I have desired Jane <10> to try & guessed, but I am afraid she is not Historian enough. You did not tell me what you thought of my last seal

I thought of Panormus, <11> which was taken by the Romans, because the first part of the Charade seemed to be Pot or Pan but that will not do.

London March twenty five 1816 Auckland <12>
Hy Fox Talbot Esqr
Revd Mr Barnes <13>
Castleford
Ferrybridge –


Notes:

1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.

2. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt, and Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer were settled in Penrice, South Wales.

3. Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley (1766–1851), British politician. He dealt with the problems of economic adjustment that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars. [See Doc. No: 00684].

4. She refers to the 1816 abolition of the property or income tax. A large decrease in taxation was generally desired, and there was a loud outcry when Nicholas Vansittart, the chancellor of the exchequer proposed only to reduce, not to abolish, the property or income tax. The abolition of this tax, was carried in parliament, and on 18 March the minister’s motion for the continuance of the tax was rejected. [See Doc. No: 00684].

5. John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), Irish-born, was a Tory MP from1807 to 1832 and Secretary of the Admiralty from 1810 to 1830. He was strongly opposed to the Reform Bill of 1832.

6. George IV, Prince Regent, later King of England (1762–1830). He led a indulgent lifestyle and was addicted to both alcohol and laudanum.

7. The marriage of Princess Charlotte Augusta (1796–1817) to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (1790–1865), in May 1816.

8. 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.

9. Text torn away under seal.

10. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).

11. Panormus, now Palermo, Sicily.

12. George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784–1849), Governor General of India.

13. Rev Theophilus Barnes (1774 –1855), of Castleford.

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