Castleford, ^<1>

July 7^th 1816.

My Dear Mamma,

M^r 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 M^r Barnes’s edification.

The weather is quite lacrymose, one is wet through so sure as one takes a walk.

I remain
Y^r Aff^te Son

W H F T.

Pray send me some of the Squibs you have been collecting for the last month, that I may read them over again, (not forgetting the parody of “Gray’s Elegy”. ^<5> I will take the utmost care of them.

Lady Elis. Feilding
31 Sakcville <sic> S^t
London

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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).