Castleford, <1>
July 7th 1816.
My Dear Mamma,
Mr Barnes <2> has got a new pupil, who came last Tuesday. His name is Baring, <3> he was one of my schoolfellows at Harrow. <4> I knew very little of him then, but I like him very well. He has been at Geneva for the last year, and is lately returned. – The Lily you sent is a Pancratium, I think the Illyricum – but it is certainly some Pancratium. Pray hunt for a scrap of paper which must be lying on the library table, with prices of French provisions &c. &c. – and send it to me for Mr Barnes’s edification.
The weather is quite lacrymose, one is wet through so sure as one takes a walk.
I remain
Yr Affte Son
W H F T.
Lady Elis. Feilding
31 Sakcville <sic> St
London
Notes:
1. Castleford, Yorkshire, 10 mi SE of Leeds, where WHFT went to school from 1815-1816.
2. Rev Theophilus Barnes (1774 –1855), of Castleford.
3. See Doc. No: 00704.
4. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811–1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859.
5. A later edition of Thomas Gray, An elegy written in a country church yard. With An hymn to adversity (London: 1751).