Brighton
16th Novr
My Dear Henry
What has suddenly stagnated your pen? The Druids <1> I suppose.
Before you have once directed to Rock Lodge I must tell you not to do so, for we have changed our habitation to the Marine Parade & mean to stay here another Month on Horatia’s <2> account.
I have neither heard or seen any thing of Dr Hooker, <3> I have had thoughts of writing him a note, but it has gone no further –
Happening accidentally to open a volume of Humboldt <4> I stumbled on the following passage which put me in mind of you & of what your feelings would be en pareil cas, “Rien ne sauroit exprimer l’émotion qu’éprouve un Naturaliste lorsqu’il touche pour la premiere fois un sol qui n’est pas Européen. l’Attention est fixée sur un si grand nombre d’objets qu’on a de la peine à se rendre compte des impressions qu’on que l’on reçoit.” <5>
Mr Bonney’s <6> prediction was that you would like Cambridge <7> better on your return to it this time, be more comfortable & find your Society more sought after in consequence of your honours & glories. Do you find it so?
I am reading Playfair’s Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth – <8> the style is to me remarkably agreeable & the calmness with which he refutes Kirwan. <9> You know I hate mineralogy & would not admit more of it than cannot [sic] be helped in Geology which is as interesting as the other is dull to me. God bless you & give me a good account of the Druids, which is more than I ever saw or heard of before.
I am likewise reading Aikin’s Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth <10> which is extremely amusing. I find in it that Trinity College was built with the Money produced by the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry 8th – Car & Hor<11> are in despair at not going to Melbury <12> – Adio Caro! <13>
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Trinity College
Cambridge
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 00830.
2. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Rev. Thomas Redman Hooker (1762-1838), WHFT's tutor at Rottingdean and a most interesting character. His career prospects were seemingly cut short when his father lost his fortune to an industrial accident. Hooker became the private secretary to the Duke of Dorset, learned French, took Holy Orders and through the Duke's influence established an influential school. His pupils included the nephews of the Duke of Wellington and of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was also active in the local smuggling ring. See Arthur R. Ankers, revised by Michael Smith, Sussex Cavalcade (Sevenoaks: Hawthorns Publications, Ltd., 1992), pp. 97-100.
4. Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), German scientist.
5. In a similar case, “Nothing could express the emotion experienced by a Naturalist when he touches for the first time a soil that is not European. The attention is fixed on such a great number of objects that one can hardly give an account of the impressions that one receives.”
6. Thomas Kaye Bonney (1782–1863), Archdeacon of Leicester.
7. Trinity College, Cambridge.
8. John Playfair, Illustrations of the Huttonian theory of the earth (Edinburgh: William Creech, and London: Cadell and Davies, 1802).
9. Richard Kirwan (1733–1812), chemist, mineralogist, meteorologist and geologist. He was an exponent of the neptunist theory of the formation of the Earth.
10. Lucy Aikin, Memoirs of the court of Queen Elizabeth (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818).
11. WHFT's half-sisters, Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881), and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851).
12. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
13. Goodbye dear.