Ilfracombe ^<1>
6^th September 1819

I have kept a regular account of the Weather: commencing with the 25^th before which we had enjoyed for a long time uninterrupted fine weather frequently very sultry. Pray let me have your corresponding observations. -

25^th August - about 4 in the morning storm of Thunder & Lightning. Gloomy rainy forenoon. Fine afternoon. Windy Night.

26^th Fine day with fresh breezes.

27^th Fine day.

28^th Cloudy

29^th Fine day

30^th Very showery. Very high wind in the night.

31^st Sea extremely rough. Outward bound Cork packet put in for shelter.

Showery blustering weather.

1^st September. Showers & sunshine.

In the Evening high wind.

2^nd Cloudy & Rainy.

3^d Variable weather. Moonlight Night.

4^th Morning pleasant, but cloudy.

Evening rainy.

5^th Sunday. Fine. Night rainy with Thunder and Lightning. -

I think the Bride of Lammermoor ^<2> equal to any of the rest of Scott's ^<3> novels. I have not yet finished the Legend of Montrose ^<4> - What is your opinion on the Manchester business? ^<5> I make a point of reading the Chronicle & Courier ^<6> every day, but have not yet met with anything satisfactory. What does M^r F. ^<7> think of it? The Chronicle published la[tely]^<8> a list of the names of 206 people who were wounded, out of which 115 were sabre or shot wounds.

I remain Y^r Aff^te Son
W. H. F. Talbot

P.S. I am very well & have not experienced any adventures worth recounting. Remember me to L^d Auckland ^<9> if he is with you - & pray what does he think of the Manchester Magistrates.

[Over]

Pixton & Nettlecombe that you mention are places out of my knowledge, tho' I have penetrated about 20 miles to the East of this place. There was a fixed star very near [illegible deletion] Jupiter for some time I suppose that was the satellite L^d Auckland thought he saw. One night I was riding I saw a magnificent meteor. It cast a strong shadow. My love to M^r F. and to Car. & Hor. ^<10> who I hope are by this time learning the Double Rule of Three, if not Tare & Fret, or Allegation Medial and Alternate. - ^<11>

A Miladi
Miladi Elisabeth Feilding

Poste Restante
Rouen
France

---

Notes:

1. Ilfracombe, Devon.

2. Walter Scott, 'The Bride of Lammermoor', Tales of My Landlord, s.3 (Edinburgh and London, 1819).

3. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), novelist and poet.

4. Walter Scott, 'A Legend of Montrose', Tales of My Landlord, s.3 (Edinburgh and London, 1819).

5. A reference to the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in August 1819. The magistrates alarmed by the size of a radical meeting held on St Peter's Fields ordered the Manchester yeomenry to arrest the speakers, but the yeomenry made a general attack on the crowd, injuring at least five hundred people and killing at least eleven.

6. Morning Chronicle, and Courier, broadsheet newspaper.

7. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.

8. Text torn away by seal.

9. George Eden, 1^st Earl of Auckland (1784-1849), Governor General of India.

10. 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.

11. A variation on the double rule of three, ie, problems solvable by calculations of the type of a times b divided by c. Tare and fret calculations deal with gross weight, nett weight and the weight of packaging. Allegation medial and alternate calculates the relationship between a compound and its component elements and vice versa.