Castleford <1>
March 29th 1816
My Dear Mamma,
The British Press <2> came today indeed, but not the Morning Chronicle, <3> therefore I cannot send you the verses you speak of. I send you back some however which were in a former paper & seem to me to be of Ld Byron’s <4> composition. I thank you for taking the trouble to procure me the British Press, but what I wanted was to see what the Chronicle said – The debates I had read in another paper. – I should like to come home about the 15th of next month, so as to see a little of my cousin Christopher <5> before his holidays are over. I do not suppose that the time of my holidays will make any difference to you – will it?
I have now been here more than one & twenty weeks; & wish very much for the holidays, for I am more tired of Nuttall than words can say. – I fear that you have exhausted your stock of seals, for your last letter was sealed with the old scorpion – I thought “Horet” rather tame; and the Italian motto I don’t understand – You have not replied to my disquisition on Hearts. <6> Jane <7> has written me a very long & amusing letter; she says William <8> is not fond of the Law – Your letter <9> was unfinished, however I can supply the last sentence. –
Although Panormus <10> is not right, yet I think you have made a very good guess; for is not Ormus a fabulous place?
The Wealth of Ormus & of Ind <11> –
Stewart & I went to Pomfret Races on Wednesday, & were tired to death with walking about. They were however, very entertaining –
I remain,
Yr Affte Son
W. H. F. Talbot
Lady E. Feilding
Sackville Street <12>
Notes:
1. Castleford, Yorkshire, 10 mi SE of Leeds, where WHFT went to school from 1815-1816.
2. The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser (London: 1803–1826).
3. Morning Chronicle.
4. George Gordon Byron (1788–1824), poet.
5. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
6. See Doc. No: 00685.
7. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
8. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
9. See Doc. No: 00687.
10. Panormus, now Palermo, Sicily. [See Doc. No: 00687].
11. “Outshon the wealth of Ormus and of Ind”, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book ii, Line 1.
12. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.