[The wrapper for this letter is in a private collection:]
Hy Fox Talbot Esqr
Normanton
Stamford
____________
22d July 1817
My Dear Henry
We set off next Sunday I hope that Night at Barming <1> get to Dover & cross over Monday & shall probably be at Paris Wednesday Night. I will certainly visit the Jardin des Plantes <2> for your sake. I am most excessively sorry I shall not find Madame de Staël, <3> who would have received me so kindly & whose kindnesses were inestimable. She had great regrets at leaving Life, which makes one feel still more for her, Quiconque fait une grande perte a de grands regrets, s'il les étouffe c'est qu'il porte la Vanité jusques dans les bras de la Mort. Les animaux entrent dans la destruction avec sensibilité, nous ne mourrons comme eux que quand l'age ou la Maladie nous rend semblables à eux par la stupidité, de nos organes. <4>
William's <5> last Letter was only to desire some English books to give to a certain Polish Countess who he thinks very clever.
I shall read Ld Chesterfield again, on Lord Lansdowne's <6> recommendation, I have almost forgot what he says. What a very good Glass yours must be!
God bless you
Addressed to W. H. F. T. to Normanton Stamford <7>
Notes:
1. Barming, Kent.
2. Also known as the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.
3. Anne Louise Germaine Necker de Staël-Holstein (better known as Madame de Staël) (1766-1817), critic and writer.
4. He who suffers a great loss has great regrets, should he smother them, when he carries Vanity to the very arms of Death. Animals enter into destruction with sensitivity, we will only die like them when age or illness makes us resemble them by the stupidity of our organs.
5. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795-1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
6. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863), MP, WHFT's uncle.
7. Written in another hand.