[written on the same sheet as one from Capt Feilding - see Doc. No: 01797]
Sackville Street <1>
May 20th
Mein theureste Sohn <2>
We approve very much of your schemes & I am delighted you should do what you like, if you are sure of what that is. Let me know what day you will be in town, that your room may be got ready for you. Mr Feilding <3> is gone down to Eden Farm, <4> Lady Auckland <5> having died almost suddenly of a Paralytic attack, & they are all in great distress. Caroline & Horatia <6> are to return tomorrow to take up their abode again within the smoky precincts of St James', They are very sorry to leave their villa. <7>
The Queen <8> is supposed to be certainly dying, nothing is more probable. She has a very great horror of death & cannot bear that anybody should think her in danger. There are great squabbles going on in the Royal Family about who is to have the care of the King, & the motive seems rather a disgraceful one, tho' very obvious. I suppose you will visit your unknown botanical friend in Yorkshire
Vale & me ama <9>
Mlle Du Bois returns to France next week & I shall be without a Governess for nearly a Month as the new one cannot come till the 22d June, I am afraid I shall be very much bored. I have established them with a Latin Master which will help to fill up their time. Horatia says already she wishes there were no such things invented as Music & GovernessesW. Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Trinity College
Cambridge
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. My dearest son.
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
4. Eden Farm, Beckenham, Kent, the home of Lord Auckland.
5. Lady Eleanor Auckland (1758-1818); she died on 18 May and was the mother of George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784-1849), Governor General of India.
6. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810-1851), WHFT's half-sister.
7. A country house in Regents Park. [See Doc. No: 00799].
8. Queen Charlotte (1744-1818); she died on 17 Nov 1818.
9. Farewell and love me.