Castleford <1>
1 April 1816.
My Dear Mamma,
I shall like to go to Paris extremely, only I hope first to stay a week or ten days with you in London, since it is so long since I saw you, nearly half a year – My wardrobe also I conceive stands in need of a little replenishment. As to staying away from Castleford two months, I shall like it very much; because in that time I think Nuttall will be gone, & I am tired of him. – The subject of my charade <2> is Potidæa <3> – won’t it do? Mr Barnes <4> thinks I had better leave some of my clothes, here – I think I had better take them to Town, & have a general survey – Tell me – I like riding, better than I used to do: I have been seventeen miles this morning – You say you admire, “Solem sola sequor” <5> – I do not think the thought is just: because many other flowers follow the sun, as well as the sunflower; – All the sunflowers are natives of America, therefore Clytie must have been changed into an Heliotrope (ηλιος, the Sun, and τρεπω, to Turn) which is an European plant, & very different. That is the classic plant.
I remain,
Yr Affte Son
W. H. F. Talbot
Lady E. Feilding
31 Sackville St
London
Notes:
1. Castleford, Yorkshire, 10 mi SE of Leeds, where WHFT went to school from 1815-1816.
2. See Doc. No: 00683.
3. He refers to the siege of Potidea, Halkidiki, Greece in 432 BC, which marked the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC).
4. Rev Theophilus Barnes (1774 –1855), of Castleford.
5. He probably means ‘Solem sola sequor’, I alone follow the Sun.
6. Henry John George Herbert, Lord Porchester, later 3rd Earl of Carnarvon (1800–1849).