Sackville St <1>
Wednesday 23d Sept 1818
My Dearest Henry
I think did not think of wishing you to be at Cambridge <2> before the end of the vacation, till I saw Mr Bonney <3> who seemed so very anxious you should, & said if you did not you would give an unfair advantage to the others who during all this time have been reading hard while you have been amusing yourself. Mr Bonney said he would write to you if he knew your direction. If he has he has no doubt pointed it out much more forcibly than I can. I dont like to fix a day for your leaving a place where you seem so happy, but you know you can return there at any future time. If you leave Penrice <4> next Monday the 28th you will be here the 30th & that will give you two or three days with me, which I assure you I think little enough. I have a letter by this post from Mr F. <5> in which he expresses a wish you should be at Cambridge the 3d or 4th October, but you know why he wishes it & are therefore in possession of all that can be said pro or con. I am engaged to Mr Hope’s in Surry the 2d of October, but will put it off till the 3d to see more of you Answer this by return of post that your room may be got ready & made comfortable for you, say exactly what day you leave Penrice & Richard can meet you at the White Horse Cellar[?] which is I suppose the place you stop at. Horatia <6> says you are a tiresome Henry if you dont come so as for her to see you before she goes to Brighton. She has been ill
Indeed I think if you have no very particular reason against it you had better come away next Monday otherwise I shall see nothing of you at all, for I have been so long engaged I dont think I can put off longer than the 3d – but at any rate write directly – & I shall have your answer next Monday[?]<7> I am to meet Lord & Lady Cowper <8> at Mr Hope’s which pins me down to a particular day
Write, write, write! dolcissimo Enrico mio! <9>
Tell me what hour in the day the Coach you come by gets to London, or if you tell me the name of the Coach I can find out the rest here –
Don’t let your native indolence prevent your writing by return of post
London Septr twenty three 1818 Auckland <10>
Hy Fox Talbot Esqr
Penrice
Swansea –
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. See Doc. No: 00820.
3. Thomas Kaye Bonney (1782–1863), Archdeacon of Leicester.
4. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
5. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
6. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
7. Text torn away by seal.
8. Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Clavering-Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper (1778–1837), and his wife Emily Mary Cowper, née Lamb.
9. My sweetest Henry!
10. George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784–1849), Governor General of India. The address panel is written in his hand.